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A GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE 

Part I 

EUROPE BEFORE THE 
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

BRIEF COURSE 

BY 

JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON 
v 

AND 

JAMES HENRY BREASTED 

WITH THE COLLABORATION OF 

EMMA PETERS SMITH 

) 




GINN AND COMPANY 

BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 
ATLANTA • DALLAS • COLUMBUS - SAN FRANCISCO 



COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON, JAMES HENRY BREASTED 

AND EMMA PETERS SMITH 

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



821.8 



^>%^ 



SEP 28 i92i 



Cfte gtftenaeum jgreg g 

GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 

§)C!.A624541 



— 



PREFACE 

In preparing this outline of the whole history of man from the 
earliest beginnings of civilization down to the present those topics 
have been chosen which have the greatest interest for us today — 
those which help us most in understanding our own time. Occa- 
sionally it has been necessary to include certain historical facts 
of no great importance in themselves merely to establish the 
sequence or because they are deemed matters of "common knowl- 
edge" which the student should know because they are often 
alluded to. Happily these latter cases are few. 

The presentation of a brief review of general history which is 
satisfactory becomes increasingly difficult. The older manuals 
gave scanty attention to anything preceding the Greeks and were 
well-nigh through their task when they reached the year 1870. 
But the long narrative of the past has been lengthened out at 
both ends. Recent discoveries of archaeologists have altered funda- 
mentally our conception of man's progress and made vivid and 
real the long, long ages during which civilization was slowly ac- 
cumulating before it reached that high degree of refinement 
which we find among the ancient Egyptians. The so-called "pre- 
historic" period and the story of the ancient Orient are now full 
of absorbing interest and can no longer be dismissed in a few 
introductory pages. 

On the other hand our own times have assumed a significance 
which they did not possess for us prior to the year 19 14. The 
shock of finding the world at war and the multitude of perplexing 
problems which the war has revealed have led us to realize how 
ill-understood are the conditions in modern Europe and in the 
Orient. The story of the World War must therefore be told with 
some account of its causes and of the questions still awaiting 
adjustment. Furthermore, it is obviously no longer possible to 
leave out some account of the Far East in an outline of European 



Gl 



111 



iv General History of Europe 

history, for the war clearly showed how close has become the 
relationship between all peoples of the earth and how delicate and 
pressing is the problem of international adjustment. 

It is obvious that in order to make room for all this new and 
essential material it has been impossible to include all the events 
which have usually been found in a general history. The task 
of selection is a difficult one. It is fair to ask the reader who is 
disturbed by the omission of some familiar name or topic to con- 
sider what portion of the present narrative he would discard in 
favor of the incident he has in mind. 

In the matter of perspective it will be noted that less than half 
of the history is devoted to the story of the Western world down 
to the sixteenth century. Nearly a quarter of the space is assigned 
to the last fifty years. This corresponds to a growing demand 
that we should study the past in the interest of the present. 

The illustrations have been chosen with especial care, and the 
legends furnish much information which could not have been added 
to the text without complicating the narrative. The questions 
at the ends of the chapters will serve as a review and assist the 
student in summarizing his knowledge. Questions which cannot be 
answered from the text have sometimes been added in the hope 
of stimulating the student to carry on a little investigation of his 
own and to make some application of what he has learned. 



Gl 



CONTENTS 

BOOK I. THE ANCIENT WORLD 



PAGE 



CHAPTER 

I. Prehistoric Man 

I. How Man has built up Civilization i 

II. The Early Stone Age 3 

III. The Late Stone Age 5 

II. Egyptian Civilization 

I. Beginnings of a Higher Civilization 10 

II. Age of the Pyramids T 4 

III. Civilization of the Empire 20 

III. Western Asia: Babylonia and Assyria, the Persians, 
and the Hebrews 

I. Babylonia and Assyria 24 

II. The Indo-European Peoples : the Persian Empire 35 

III. The Hebrews \° 



BOOK II THE GREEKS 
IV. The Coming of the Greeks — their Early Achievements 

I. The ^Egean Civilization 48 

II. The Coming of the Greeks 54 

III. Beginnings of Higher Culture among the Greeks 57 

IV. Greek Colonies and Business 62 

V. Reforms of Solon and Clisthenes 68 

V. The Repulse of Persia and the Rise of the Athenian 
Empire 

I. The Repulse of the Persians 7° 

II. The Rise of the Athenian Empire 75 

VI. Athens in the Age of Pericles 

I. Houses, Education, and Science *'. 78 

II. Art and Literature 81 

III. Fall of the Athenian Empire 86 

Gl 



vi General History of Europe 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VII. Continued Conflicts among the Greek States; Art 
and Literature after Pericles 

I. Political Revolutions 91 

II. Greek Art, Literature, and Philosophy 93 

VIII. Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age 

I. Macedonia and Alexander the Great 101 

II. The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 107 

BOO A' III. THE ROMANS 

IX. The Western Mediterranean World and the Roman 
Conquest of Italy 

I. Italy and the Origin of Rome 116 

II. The Early Roman Republic: its Government 120 

III. The Expansion of the Roman Republic and the Conquest 

of Italy 123 

X. Rome and Carthage 

I. Commercial Power of Carthage ; the First Punic War . . 128 
II. The War with Hannibal, or Second Punic War 131 

XI. Extension of Roman Dominion and its Results 

I. Conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean : New Problems . . 137 

II. Signs of Degeneration in Town and Country 141 

XII. A Century of Revolution and the End of the Roman 

Republic (133-30 b.c.) 

I. The Struggle between Senate and People 145 

II. Overthrow of the Republic; Pompey and Caesar 147 

III. Triumph of Augustus and End of the Civil Wars .... 151 

XIII. The Roman' Empire from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius 

I. The Age of Augustus (30 B.C.- a. d. 14) 153 

II. Successors of Augustus: Policies of Trajan and Hadrian . 157 
III. Civilization of the Roman Empire 161 

XIV. A Century of Disorder and the Division of the Roman 
Empire 

I. Decline of the Roman Empire 171 

II. A Ceiftury of Revolution 174 

III. The Roman Empire becomes an Oriental Despotism . . . 175 

IV. The Triumph of Christianity and Division of the Empire . 177 

Gi 



Contents vii 



BOOK IV THE MIDDLE AGES 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XV. The Period of Invasions and the Work of the Christian 
Church 

I. Invasion of the Empire by Barbarians 181 

II. Results of the Barbarian Invasions 188 

III. The Mohammedan Invasion of Europe ......... 191 

IV. The Work of the Christian Church 194 

V. The Monks and their Missions 198 

XVI. Age of Disorder: Feudalism 

I. Conquests of Charlemagne 204 

II. Causes of Disorder after Charlemagne 207 

III. Feudal System and Neighborhood Warfare 211 

XVII. Popes, Emperors, and Princes in the Middle Ages 

I. Origin of the Holy Roman Empire 216 

II. The Long Struggle between Popes and Emperors . . . 220 

III. Organization and Powers of the Church 222 

XVIII. England and France in the Middle Ages 

I. The Norman Conquest 227 

II. Henry II and the Plantagenets 232 

XIX. The Crusades: Heresy and the Mendicant Orders 

I. The First Crusade 237 

II. The Second and Later Crusades ; Results 241 

III. The Heretics and the Friars 243 



BOOK V CIVILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

XX. Medieval Life in Country and Town 

I. The Serfs and the Manor 248 

II. The Towns and Guilds 251 

III. Business in the Later Middle Ages 254 

IV. Gothic Architecture . 258 

XXI. Books and Science in the Middle Ages 

I. How the Modern Languages Originated 264 

II. The Troubadours and Chivalry 267 

III. Medieval Learning 268 

IV. Medieval Universities and Studies 270 

V. Beginnings of Modern Inventions 273 

Gl 



viii General History of Europe 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXII. England and' France during the Hundred Years' War 

I. Wales and Scotland 279 

II. Beginnings of the English Parliament 281 

III. The Hundred Years' War 283 

IV. England and France after the Hundred Years' War . . 286 

XXIII. Italy and the Renaissance 

L The Italian Cities during the Renaissance 2S9 

II. The Art of the Renaissance 294 

III. Early Geographical Discoveries 296 



BOOK VI THE PROTESTANT REVOLT AND THE WARS 

OE RELIGION 

XXIV. Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 

I. How Italy became the Battle Ground of the European 

Powers 300 

II. How Spain became a Great European Tower 302 

III. The Empire of the Hapsburgs under Charles V . . . . 304 

XXV. Martin Luther and the Revolt of Germany against 
the Papacy 

I. The Question of Reforming the Church ; Erasmus . . 30S 

II. Martin Luther and his Teachings 310 

III. The Revolt against the Papacy begins in Germany . . 314 

IV. Division of Germany into Catholic and Protestant 

Countries 316 

XXVI. The Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 

I. Zwingli and Calvin 319 

II. How England fell away from the Papacy 322 

III. England becomes Protestant 325 

XXVII. The Wars of Religion 

I. The Council of Trent ; the Jesuits 328 

II. Philip II and the Revolt of the Netherlands 331 

III. The Huguenot Wars in France 334 

IV. England under Queen Elizabeth 338 

V. The Thirty Years' War 343 

VI. The Beginnings of our Scientific Age 347 

Gl 



Contents 



IX 



BOOK VII THE SEVENTEENTH AND EARLY EIGHTEENTH 

CENTURIES 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXVIII. Struggle in England between King and Parliament 

I. The Stuarts and the Divine Right of Kings 351 

II. Oliver Cromwell ; England a Commonwealth 357 

III. The Restoration 360 

IV. The Revolution of 1688 361 

V. England after the Revolution of 1688 363 

BIBLIOGRAPHY i 

INDEX xi 



Gl 



LIST OF COLORED PLATES 

Plate I page 

AN AMERICAN GENERAL ADDRESSING HIS MEN JUST BEFORE 
GOING UNDER FIRE IN THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE Frontispiece 

Plate II 

THE PARTHENON 78 

Plate III 

PERISTYLE OF THE HOUSE OF THE VETTII IN POMPEII, 
RESTORED 1 68 

Plate IV 

PAGE FROM THE BOOK OF HOURS, FIFTEENTH CENTURY. . 276 

Plate V 

GREAT TANGLEY MANOR IN SURREY, BUILT IN ELIZABETH'S 

TIME 340 



XI 



LIST OF COLORED MAPS 

PAGE 

The Ancient Oriental World and Neighboring Europe before the Rise 

of the Greeks 24 

Map of Two Oriental Empires: A, The Assyrian Empire at its Height; 

B, The Persian Empire at its Greatest Extent 30 

Palestine, the Land of the Hebrews 44 

Greece in the Fifth Century B.c 50 

Empire of Alexander the Great 104 

Italy and Adjacent Lands before the Supremacy of Rome 122 

Sequence Map showing the Expansion of the Roman Power to the 

Death of Caesar (I-IV) 138 

The Roman Empire at its Greatest Extent 158 

The Migrations of the Germans in the Fifth Century 184 

Europe and the Orient in 1096 220 

Commercial Towns and Trade Routes in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth 

Centuries 254 

The British Isles • 280 

Behaim's Globe . 296 

Europe about the Middle of the Sixteenth Century 306 



Gl 



A GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE 

Part I 



GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE 
BOOK I. THE ANCIENT WORLD 

CHAPTER I 

PREHISTORIC MAN 

I. How Man has built up Civilization 

1. Ignorance and Poverty of Earliest Man. How long man 
has existed on the earth no one knows. Those who have studied 
the matter most carefully in recent times make various guesses 
— some five hundred thousand years, some a million. In the be- 
ginning he must have lived without houses or clothes or any means 
of making a fire. He had to invent even language. There. were 
no books or teachers to help him, and so he had to find out 
everything for himself. He wandered naked and houseless through 
the woods and over the plains, picking up a living by looking for 
wild fruit, seeds, berries, roots, and such animals as he might 
find dead or could succeed in striking down with a stone or 
stick. As a great English philosopher long ago remarked, the 
original life of man must have been "poor, nasty, brutish, and 

short." 

We may imagine one of these naked, brutish forefathers of 
ours sitting in the shade and amusing himself by picking up a 
sharp stone and scraping the bark off a stick he had at hand with 
a view to killing a squirrel that was playing around. He might 
happen to sharpen the stick and so make a rude spear, which he 
discovered could be used to pierce an animal as well as hit him. 
In some such way the first weapon better than clubs and stones 
might have been invented. Now to invent means to "happen .on" 



2 General History of Europe 

or " discover." Man has happened on and found out accidentally 
very many things that he has slowly learned through the ages. 

2. Man Learns by Imitation. One of the great differences be- 
tween man and other animals is that what one man invents may 
be imitated by others and become a tradition of the tribe. An 
old animal — let us say an elephant or horse — has learned some- 
thing by experience and is wiser than a young one, but he cannot 
teach what he knows to the baby elephant or colt. Men and 
women, however, can teach boys and girls what they have learned. 
In this way discoveries which have been made from time to time 
have been passed down from generation to generation and have 
become more and more numerous, until the descendants of men 
who could not make a fire or speak a sentence or build a canoe 
have finally, in modern times, been able to construct an electric 
furnace hotter than the sun itself, dispatch messages around the 
world, and send great steamships back and forth across the sea. 
Each new invention usually depends on earlier inventions and 
these on still earlier ones, until, if we could follow the history of 
civilization back to the very beginning, we might find the man 
under the tree making the first spear hundreds of thousands of 
years ago. 

3. Civilization the Story of Invention. The history of civili- 
zation is the story of how man invented and discovered all those 
things which we now have and of which at the start he was igno- 
rant. We nowadays think of invention as going on rapidly, so 
that even a boy or girl can observe that new things are being 
discovered as he looks around or reads the newspapers and 
magazines. But in the beginning invention went on very, very 
slowly, and mankind has spent almost its whole existence in a 
state of savagery far below that of the most ignorant peoples to 
be found today in central Africa or the arctic regions. 

4. Man's Long History and Slow Progress. If we imagine 
that man began to make the simplest inventions five hundred 
thousand years ago, and we let this five hundred thousand years be 
represented by a line fifty feet long, each foot would correspond 
to ten thousand years. Forty-nine feet would represent the period 



Prehistoric Man 



before man learned to raise crops, tame and breed animals, make 
pottery, and weave cloth ; the last six or seven inches, the time 
that he has been able to write ; the last 
three inches, the period during which he 
has been studying science ; the last half- 
inch, the time since the printing press 
became common ; and the last fifth of 
an inch, the period since he discovered 
he could make the steam engine work 
for him and carry him about. A great 
part of the problems of the present day 
are due to the rapidity with which in- 
vention now goes on and changes the 
conditions in which we live. But our 
remote ancestors probably lived for 
thousands and thousands of years with- 
out experiencing any great changes 
due to inventions, for it is only during 
the past five or six thousand years 
that civilization finally reached a point 
where ever more rapid progress could 
be made. 




A Flint Fist-Hatchet 

belonging to the early 

Stone Age 



II. The Early Stone Age 



Rough flint flakes older 
than the fist-hatchet show 
us man's earliest efforts 
at shaping stone. But the 
fist-hatchet is the earliest 
well-finished type of tool 
produced by man. The 
original is about nine 
inches long. Handles of 
wood or horn do not ap- 
pear until much later 



5. Great Age of Man shown by 
Stone Tools and Weapons. Of the 

earliest period of man's existence we 

have no traces except perhaps a few 

human bones. It was only when he 

began to make stone implements by 

chipping fragments of flint into rude knives and hatchets that 

he created anything that could last down to our day. How old 

the most ancient of these stone weapons are we do not know. 

They may have been made a hundred thousand years ago, perhaps 

earlier. They are found in England, France, and Belgium and 



General History of Europe 




Simplest Method 
of making Fire 

A hard stick is rubbed 
rapidly back and 
forth on a strip of 
soft wood. A groove 
is formed, and the 
particles of wood 
rubbed off take fire 
from the heat pro- 
duced by the friction 



all around the Mediterranean Sea, especially along river banks, 
where they were dropped and, as the ages went on, deeply buried 
under sand and soil. Along with them are the 
bones of tropical animals, for the climate of 
Europe was warm in those remote times and 
the hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and elephant 
lived where Paris and London now stand. 

For thousands of years the European sav- 
ages led the lives of hunters and protected 
themselves as best they could with their stone 
and wooden weapons against the wild beasts 
and their fellow savages. They built no huts 
or shelter so far as we know and slept on the 
ground wherever darkness overtook them. 

6. Fire and Language. Man must have 
early made use of the fire resulting from 
volcanoes or from lightning which often set 
the forests aflame. He was able then to cook 
his food and keep himself warm. But a long time probably 
elapsed before he discovered for himself how to make fire, as 
savages still do by rubbing 

two sticks together. <^ 

We know nothing of the 
invention of language, but 
man could not have gone 
far without some means of 
communication with his 
fellows. . 

7. Earliest Examples of 
Art. For reasons that can- 
not fully be explained the climate grew cold, and the ice and snow 
which always cover the high mountains and the region around the 
north pole began to creep downward until it covered all -England 
and much of northern Europe. The tropical animals disappeared, 
and man had to take to living in caves and wearing the skins of 
animals in order to survive. From the remains now found in the 



Ivory Needle of the Stone Age 

Such needles are found in the rubbish in 
the French caverns, where the wives of 
the prehistoric hunters lost them and 
failed to find them again twenty thousand 
years ago. They show that these women 
were already sewing together the skins of 
wild animals as clothing 



. Prehistoric Man 5 

French and Spanish caverns it is clear that man had learned by 
this time to make (flint knives, drills, scrapers, and hammers and 
with these could work bone and reindeer horn into needles, 
spoons, and ladles. He also learned to carve pictures on his 





Drawings carved by Stone Age Man on Ivory 

implements and adorn the walls of caves with paintings of fish, 
bison, deer, and wild horses. These are sometimes beautifully 
executed and very lifelike. They represent the earliest examples 
of human art and may go back fifteen or twenty thousand years. 1 



III. The Late Stone Age 

8. The Late Stone Age. At length the climate grew warmer, 
much as it is today. The traces left by the ice would lead us to 
think that it withdrew northward for the last time probably some 
ten thousand years ago. The progress which man had made by 
this time in a number of important ways marks this period 
following the final retreat of the ice as the Late Stone Age. 
During the long, long years known as the Early Stone Age man 
knew only how to chip or flake his stone weapons. Now, how- 
ever, he had learned that it was possible to grind the edge of a 
stone ax or chisel, as we grind tools of metal today. He was 
also able to drill a hole in a stone ax head and insert a handle. 
With the new tools that he had learned to make he could con- 
siderably improve his conditions of living. First, with his ground 

1 According to geologists the ice has advanced and retreated four times. It is now 
believed that stone implements were first made in the third warm interval, and that it 
was the cold of the fourth glacial period which drove men to their cave life. This period 
may be called the Middle Stone Age. For a fuller account of early man and the glacial 
periods see Breasted, Ancient Times, chap. i. 



6 General History of Europe 

stone axes, hatchets, and chisels he could now build wooden huts. 
These wooden dwellings of the Late Stone Age are the earliest 
such shelters in Europe. Sunken fragments of these houses are 
found along the shores of the Swiss lakes, lying at the bottom 
among the wooden piles which supported them. Second, pieces of 




Restoration of a Swiss Lake-Dwellers' Settlement 

The lake-dwellers felled trees with their stone axes and cut them into piles 
some twenty feet long, sharpened at the lower end. These they drove several 
feet into the bottom of the lake, in water eight or ten feet deep. On a 
platform supported by these piles they then built their houses. The plat- 
form was connected with the shore by a bridge, which may be seen here 
on the right. A section of it could be removed at night for protection. 
The fish nets seen drying on the rail, the "dug-out" boat of the hunters 
who bring in the deer, and many other things have been found on the 

lake bottom in recent times 



stools, chests, carved dippers, spoons, and the like, of wood, show 
that these houses were equipped with all ordinary wooden furni- 
ture. Third, the householder had learned that clay will harden 
in the fire, and he was making handy jars, bowls, and dishes. 
Fourth, before his door the women sat spinning flax thread, for the 
rough skin clothing of his ancestors had been replaced by garments 
of woven stuff. Fifth, the lake-dwellers already enjoyed one of 



Prehistoric Man 7 

the greatest things gained by man in his slow advance toward 
civilization. This was the food grains which we call cereals, 
especially wheat and barley. The seeds of the wild grasses, which 
their ancestors had been accustomed to eat, these Late Stone 
Age men had now learned to cultivate. Thus wild grain was 




ilfe!l» 



'iUXtffl tfZLr?** » 






Great Stone Circle inclosing a Tomb, or Group of Tombs, of the 
Late Stone Age Chieftains at Stonehenge, England 

The circle is about one hundred feet across, and a long avenue connecting 
it with the neighboring Late Stone Age town is still traceable. No one 
knows how the men of the Late Stone Age were able to handle these great 
stones. Western Europe produced nothing more than this rude architecture 
in stone until the coming of the Romans 

domesticated and agriculture was introduced. Sixth, these Late 
Stone Age men possessed domestic cattle. For the mountain sheep 
and goats and the wild cattle had now been taught to dwell near 
man and submit to his control. The wild ox bowed his neck to 
the yoke and drew the plow across the forest-girt field where he 
had once wandered in unhampered freedom. Fragments of wooden 
wheels in the lake-villages show that oxen were also drawing 
wheeled carts, the earliest in Europe. 

9. Rise of Civilization in Egypt (4000-3000 B.C.). Thus 
far we have followed man's advance only in Europe. Similar 
progress had also been made by Stone Age men all around the 



8 



General History of Europe 



Mediterranean ; that is, about 4000 B.C., not only in Europe but in 
Asia, and especially in northern Africa, mankind had reached 
about the same stage of advancement. But civilization cannot arise 
or advance without the following three things : writing, the use of 
metals, 1 and the control of men by an organized government. 




Part of the Equipment of a Late Stone Age Lake-Dweller 

This group contains the evidence for three important inventions made or 
received by the men of the Late Stone Age : first, pottery jars, like 2 and j, 
with rude decorations, the oldest baked clay in Europe, and 1, a large kettle ; 
second, ground-edged tools like 4, a stone chisel with ground edge, mounted 
in a deerhorn handle like a hatchet, or 5, stone ax with a ground edge, and 
pierced with a hole for the ax handle (the houses shown in the cut on page 
6 were built with such tools) ; and third, weaving, as shown by 6, a spin- 
ning "whorl" of baked clay. When suspended by a rough thread of flax, 
it was given a whirl which made it spin in the air like a top, thus rapidly 
twisting the thread by which it was hanging 



Nowhere around the entire Mediterranean did the world of the 
Late Stone Age as yet possess these things, nor did Europe ever 
gain them for itself unaided. Europe borrowed them. Hence 
we must now turn elsewhere to see where these, and many other 
things that help to make up our civilization, first appeared. The 

1 Metal was introduced in southeastern Europe about 3000 B. c. and passed like a slow 
wave, moving gradually westward and northward across Europe. It probably did not 
reach Britain until about 2000 B.C. Hence we have included the great stone monuments 
of western Europe (like Stonehenge) in our survey of Stone Age Europe. They were 
erected long after southeastern Europe had received metal, but before metal came into 
common use in western Europe (§ 20). 



Prehistoric Man g 

Egyptians, emerging from the Late Stone Age, invented a system 
of writing, discovered metal, and learned to use it. In the thou- 
sand years between 4000 and 3000 b.c. the Egyptians of the 
Late Stone Age advanced to a great and wonderful civilization, 
while the Europeans whom we have been describing still remained 
in barbarism. Hence, in order to understand the further history 
of Europe we must turn to Egypt. We shall then see how the 
Egyptians emerged from the Late Stone Age and became the 
first great civilized nation. 

10. Prehistoric Period (before 4000 B.C.) and the Historic 
Period. It was not until man invented writing and began to pro- 
duce written documents, and monuments bearing inscriptions, that 
the Historic Period began. All that we know about men of the 
Stone Age we have to learn from the weapons, tools, implements, 
buildings, and other works of his hands which happen to have 
been preserved. The age before the appearance of written records 
we call the Prehistoric Period. The transition from the Prehis- 
toric to the Historic Period did not take place suddenly, but was a 
slow process. The Historic Period began in the Orient during 
the thousand years between 4000 and 3000 B.C., as civilization 
advanced and writing became more common. 

QUESTIONS 

I. Describe man's condition before civilization began. How would 
you define civilization? Give some examples of its progress. Give an 
example of how all inventions depend on previous ones. Mention as 
many things as you can which had to be invented before an automobile 
could be made. Mention some things you have learned by imitation. 

11. What remains of the Stone Age have been discovered in Europe ? 
Have, you seen any stone utensils made by American Indians ? What 
forced man to live in caves and to invent clothing? How would you 
be able to live without fire ? 

III. What were the inventions of the Late Stone Age ? What seeds, 
roots, fruits, and berries do we use for food ? What is the importance 
of the civilization of Egypt in the history of Europe ? 



CHAPTER II 

EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION 

I. Beginnings of a Higher Civilization 

11. Peculiarities of Egypt. Egypt is a very strange country. 
It comprises the northern end of the valley which the river Nile 
has slowly cut for itself across the eastern part of the great desert 
of Sahara. Egypt includes the triangular Delta, a very fertile 
region to the north of Cairo, and then the long, narrow valley 
winding some seven hundred and fifty miles to the First Cataract, 
where the river flows rapidly among great rocks. The valley is 
usually twenty-five or thirty miles wide, lying between bare cliffs, 
over which the sands of the desert blow. On each side of the river 
is a narrow strip of cultivated land between the cliffs and the 
stream. 

12. The Rise and Fall of the Nile. It almost never rains in 
Egypt, and the sun shines every day, summer and winter, so that 
the farmers have had to rely for water entirely on the river. But 
far up the Nile and its tributaries there is plenty of rain in the 

vspring, which yearly floods the valley in which Egypt lies and 
raises the level of the river from twenty-five to thirty feet between 
Cairo and Aswan. This overflow of the Nile covers the fields 
each year and deposits a thin layer of fresh, fertile soil as the 
muddy waters subside. For thousands of years the Egyptians 
have been accustomed to store up the waters at their flood and to 
raise water from the Nile itself to irrigate their fields during the 
period when the river was low. (See Ancient Times, §§ 46-47.) 

13. Long History of Ancient Egypt. The first Egyptian king 
who governed all Egypt — indeed one of the very first human beings 
whose name has come down to us — was Menes, who lived about 
3400 b.c. The earliest capital of Egypt was Memphis, a vast 

10 



1 fr-A 



Egyptian Civilization n 

town very near the spot where the modern city of Cairo lies. 
Menes founded the first dynasty, or family of kings, and after- 
wards the Egyptian dynasties rose and fell for over three thousand 
years, until finally a Greek conqueror, Alexander the Great, 
brought Egypt under his sway and founded the city of Alexandria 
(332 B.C.), which is now the chief port of Egypt (§§ 165, 168 ff). 
We cannot retrace here the history 
of Egypt's rulers through three 
thousand years and more or the 
conquests they made in Western 

Asia. We shall have to confine our _ _ _ 

Pictorial Message scratched 
account to the wonderful contnbu- 0N WooD BY Alaskan Indians 

tions made to civilization by the 

t, ,. mi -j- • j A figure with empty hands hang- 

Egyptians. Their discoveries and ing down helpless i y , pa i ms down, 

inventions were finally introduced as an Indian gesture for uncer- 

into Europe and now form a part taint y> ignorance, emptiness, or 

r j i-r nothing, means "no." A figure 

of our everyday life. with one hand on itg m * uth 

14. The Invention of Writing, means "eating" or "food." It 

The Egyptians were the first people P oints toward the tent, and this 

r 1 means "in the tent." The whole 

so far as we know to possess an ig a message gtating> W[There b] 

alphabet and learn how to write. no food in the tent" 

No people could possibly advance 

very far in civilization without written records of any kind, or 
means of sending messages, or any books from which they could 
learn what others had found out. Reading and writing have be- 
come so common now that we find it hard to realize what the world 
would be like if the art of writing should suddenly disappear and 
there were no books, newspapers, magazines, or letters and no 
way of communicating with anyone except by word of mouth. 
The first step in the development of writing was the use of rude 
pictures such as the North American Indians employed ; for an 
event and even a kind of story can be told by drawings without 
any writing (see accompanying cut). All writing, whether it 
developed as it did first in Egypt or later in Babylonia and 
China, is derived from such pictures of things previously used 
to convey ideas. 



12 • General History of Europe 

15. Phonetic Signs. As time went on these pictures, or hiero- 
glyphics as they were called in Egypt, came to represent sounds 
that were made in speaking as well as the objects they had origi- 
nal!}/ stood for. For example (assuming for the sake of illustra- 
tion that the Egyptian words were the same as the English), the 
sign for "man" might become the sign for the syllable "man" 

An Example of Egyptian Hieroglyphic Writing 

The upper line shows the way in which the hieroglyphics were carved and 

painted on the tomb walls and monuments. But when the Egyptians wrote 

rapidly with a pen and ink on papyrus they simplified the figures, which 

then were made as they are represented in the lower line 

wherever it occurred, as in "manner," "manifest," "manifold," 
" manui acture." In the same way, a bee \^ might become the sign 
for the syllable "be" and a leaf k for the sound of the syllable 
"leaf." When used together these syllables formed a new word, 
"belief." Such signs were then no longer regarded as pictures 
of things, but as syllables which could be used in any com- 
bination one wished. Writing which represents in this way the 
sounds we make when we speak is called phonetic, and this is the 
kind of writing we use today. All the letters on this page represent 
sounds, not things. The advantage of phonetic signs is readily 
appreciated when we come to express ideas — such as beauty, 
love, truth, or virtue — which cannot be represented by pictures 
of objects. 

16. Alphabetic Signs. The Egyptians went still further, 
for there finally arose a series of signs, each representing only one 
letter ; that is, alphabetic signs, or real letters. There were 
twenty-four letters in their alphabet, which was used in Egypt 
long before 3000 b.c. It was the earliest alphabet known and the 
one from which our own has descended (see Ancient Times, 
§§5i-56). 



Egyptian Civilization 13 

17. Invention of Writing Materials. The Egyptians early 
found out that they could make an excellent ink by thickening 
water with a little vegetable gum and then mixing in a little soot 
from the blackened pots over the fire. By dipping a pointed reed 
into this mixture one could write very well. They also learned 
that they could split and flatten out a kind of river reed, called 
papyrus, into thin strips and make large sheets by pasting the 
strips together with overlapping edges. They thus produced a 
smooth, almost white paper. In this way pen, ink, and paper 
came into use for the first time. Our word "paper" is the ancient 
name papyr(os), but slightly changed. With the invention of 
phonetic writing, records could now be made, and with the ap- 
pearance of such written records the Historic Period begins. 

18. Egyptian Origin of our Calendar. The Egyptians early 
found it necessary to measure time. The time from new moon 
to new moon seemed to them, as to all other early peoples, 
a very convenient rough measure. But the moon-month varies 
in length from twenty-nine to thirty days, and it does not evenly 
divide the year. Thoughtful Egyptians early discovered this in- 
convenience and decided to use the moon no longer for dividing 
the year. They divided the year into twelve months, all of the 
same length ; that is, thirty days each. Then at the end of the 
year they established a holiday period five days long. This gave 
them a year of three hundred and sixty-five days. The Egyptian 
was not yet enough of an astronomer to know that every four 
years he ought to have a leap year, of three hundred and sixty- 
six days, although he discovered this fact later. This calendar is 
the very one which has descended to us after more than six 
thousand years. Unfortunately it has meantime suffered awk- 
ward alterations in the lengths of the months, for which the 
Egyptians were not responsible. 

19. Discovery of Metal (at least 4000 B.C.). Meantime the 
Egyptians were also making great progress in other matters. It 
was probably in the peninsula of Sinai (see map, p. 24) that 
some Egyptian, wandering about, once happened to bank his 
camp fire with pieces of copper ore lying on the ground near the 



14 General History of Europe 

camp. The charcoal of his wood fire mingled with the hot frag- 
ments of ore, and thus the ore was " reduced," as the miners say ; 
that is, the copper in metallic form was released from the lumps 
of ore. Next morning the Egyptian discovered a few glittering 
metal globules. Before long he learned whence these strange 
shining beads came. He produced more of them, at first only to 
be worn as ornaments by the women. Then he learned to cast 
the metal into a blade to replace the flint knife which he carried. 

20. Dawning of the Age of Metal. Without knowing it this 
man stood at the dawning of a new era, the Age of Metal. The bit 
of shining copper which he drew from the ashes,, if this Egyptian 
wanderer could have seen it, might have reflected to him a vision 
of steel buildings, huge factories roaring with the noise of thou- 
sands of machines of metal, and vast stretches of railroads. Since 
the discovery of fire, thousands of years earlier, man had made 
no advance which could compare in importance to the first use 
of metal (note, § 9). 

II. Age of the Pyramids 

21. Egypt like a Museum. Egypt is like a vast historical mu- 
seum, through which the traveler can wander and study the way 
in which the ancient Egyptians lived and many of the things they 
made and did. We owe this museum to the Egyptians' firm belief 
in a life to come after death. In order to enjoy existence in the 
next world they thought that the body must be preserved by em- 
balming it and then be safely placed in a tomb where no one could 
disturb its rest. Such well-preserved bodies are called mummies. 
They are generally the remains of Egyptian kings and nobles, 
who could afford a well-built tomb and the expenses of careful 
embalming. It was believed that if the dead man was to be 
happy in the next world he should be surrounded by the things 
he had used in his lifetime and by pictures of his former servants, 
workmen, cattle, and even his dinner table. So the tombs are 
themselves like museums, for they contain the actual furniture and 
utensils and jewelry that the rich Egyptian used, as well as reliefs, 
statuettes, and wall-paintings representing his daily life. 



Egyptian Civilization 



i5 



Had the tombs continued to be constructed of sun-dried mud 
bricks and roofed with wood, as they were originally built, they 
would have disappeared long ago, but shortly after the time of 
Menes, the kings and princes began to construct tombs of hewn 




Relief Scene from the Chapel of a Noble's Tomb in the 

Pyramid Age 

The tall figure of the noble stands at the right. He is inspecting three lines 
of cattle and a line of fowl brought before him. Note the two scribes who 
head the two middle rows. Each is writing with pen on a sheet of papyrus, 
and one carries two pens behind his ear. Such reliefs after being carved 
were colored in bright hues by the painter 

stone. These have proved to be very massive and enduring. 
Later, the burial chambers of the tombs were hewn in the rock 
many feet below the surface in the desert beyond the cultivated 
fields. Many of the tombs have been explored in modern times, 
and so dry is the climate that the articles found in them, as 
well as the painting and statuary, are as fresh and wonderful 
as they were thousands of years ago when their owner went to 
his long rest (§§ 25-29). 



i6 



General History of Europe 



22. The Great Pyramids. About the year 3000 b.c. tombs 
began to be built in the form of a pyramid, and about 2900 B.C. 
the king's architect was able to construct the amazing Great 
Pyramid of Gizeh, near the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis. 
The royal city, with its villas and gardens and the offices of gov- 
ernment, has quite vanished, for the structures made of sun- 
baked brick and wood have long ago crumbled to dust, but 




^^j^mmmmm^^^mm^mmmmmmmmmm/i 



Earliest Representation of a Seagoing Ship (Twenty-eighth 

Century b.c) 

the Great Pyramid and a long line of lesser ones built by later 
kings still bear witness to the surprising skill of the Nile-dwellers 
five thousand years ago. Already they had advanced in their 
civilization far. beyond that of the lake-dwellers of the Late Stone 
Age whom we left behind in Europe. 

23. Vast Size of the Great Pyramid. The Great Pyramid 
covers thirteen acres. It is a solid mass of masonry containing 
two million three hundred thousand blocks of limestone, each 
weighing on an average two and a half tons ; that is, each block 
is as heavy as a large wagonload of coal. ^The sides of the pyra- 
mid at the base are seven hundred and fifty-five feet long, and 
the building was originally nearly five hundred feet high. An 
ancient story tells us that a hundred thousand men were working 
on this royal tomb for twenty years. 

We perceive at once that it must have required a very skillful 
ruler and a great body of officials to manage and to feed a hundred 
thousand workmen around the Great Pyramid. The king who 




Restoration of the Great Pyramids and Other Tomb-Monuments 
in the Ancient Cemetery of Gizeh, Egypt. (After Hoelscher) 

These royal tombs (pyramids) belonged to the leading kings of the Fourth 
Dynasty, which came in the early part (2900-2750 B.C.) of the Pyramid 
Age. The Great Pyramid, the tomb of King Khufu (Greek, Cheops), 
is on the right. Next in size is that of King Khafre (Greek, Chephren) on 
the left. On the east side (front) of each pyramid is a temple, where the 
food, drink, and clothing were placed for the use of the dead king. These 
temples, like the pyramids, were built on the desert plateau above, while the 
royal town was in the valley below (on the right). For convenience, there- 
fore, the temple was connected with the town below by a covered gallery, or 
corridor, of stone, seen here descending in a straight line from the temple of 
King Khafre and terminating below, just beside the Sphinx, in a large oblong 
building of stone, called a valley-temple. It was a splendid structure of 
granite serving not only as a temple but also as the entrance to the great 
corridor from the royal city. The pyramids are surrounded by the tombs of 
the queens and the great lords of the age. At the lower left-hand corner is 
an unfinished pyramid, showing the inclined ascents up which the stone 
blocks were dragged. These ascents were built of sun-baked brick and 
were removed after the pyramid was finished 



Egyptian Civilization 



i7 




controlled such vast undertakings was no longer a local chieftain, 
like the earliest rulers of Egypt, but he now ruled a united Egypt, 
the earliest great unified nation, having several millions of people. 
24. Earliest Seagoing Ships. In the Pyramid Age the Egyp- 
tians began to extend their trade beyond the boundaries of Egypt. 
A few surviving blocks from a fallen pyramid-temple south of 
Gizeh bear carved and painted reliefs showing us the ships which 
they ventured to send be- 
yond the shelter of the Nile 
mouths far across the end of 
the Mediterranean to the 
coast of Phoenicia (see map, 
p. 24). This was in the 
middle of the twenty-eighth 
century B.C., and this relief 
contains the oldest known 
picture of a seagoing ship. 

25. Agriculture. A stroll 
among the tombs clustering 

so thickly around the pyramids of Gizeh is almost like a walk 
among the busy communities of this populous valley in the days 
of the pyramid-builders, for the stone walls are often covered from 
floor to ceiling with carved scenes, beautifully painted, picturing 
the daily life on the great estate of which the buried noble had 
been lord. The tallest form in all these scenes is that of the 
dead noble. He stands looking out over his fields and inspect- 
ing the work going on there. These fields, where the oxen draw 
the plow and the sowers scatter the seed, are the oldest farming 
scenes known to us. Here, too, are the herds, long lines of sleek 
fat cattle. But we find no pictures of horses in these tombs 
of the Pyramid Age, for the horse was then unknown to the 

Egyptian. 

26. Craftsmen. On the next wall we find again the tall figure 
of the noble overseeing the sheds and yards where the crafts- 
men of his estate are working. The coppersmith could make 



Egyptian Peasant milking in the 
Pyramid Age 

The cow is restive, and the ancient cow- 
herd has tied her hind legs. Behind her 
another man is holding her calf, which 
rears and plunges in the effort to reach 
the milk. Scene from the chapel of a 
noble's tomb 



i8 



General History of Europe 



excellent tools of all sorts. 1 The tool which demanded the 
greatest skill was the long, flat ripsaw, which the smith knew 
how to hammer into shape out of a broad strip of copper some- 
times five or six feet long. Such a saw may be seen in use in 
the accompanying cut. 

On the same wall we find the lapidary holding up for the 
noble's admiration splendid stone bowls cut from diorite. Al- 
though this kind of stone is as hard as steel, the bowl is ground 




Cabinetmakers in the Pyramid Age 

At the left a man is cutting with a chisel, which he taps with a mallet ; next, 
a man "rips" a board with a copper saw; next, two men are finishing off 
a couch, and at the right a man is drilling a hole with a bow-drill. Scene 
from the chapel of a noble's tomb. Compare a finished chair belonging to 
a wealthy noble of the Empire (see cut on page 21) 



to such thinness that the sunlight glows through its dark-gray 
sides. The booth of the goldsmith is filled with workmen and 
apprentices weighing gold and costly stones, hammering and 
casting, soldering and fitting together richly wrought jewelry 
which can hardly be surpassed by the best goldsmiths and 
jewelers of today. 

27. The Potter's Wheel and Furnace; Earliest Glass. In 
the next space on this wall we find the potter no longer building 
up his jars and bowls with his fingers alone, as in the Stone Age. 

1 Before the end of the Pyramid Age the coppersmiths had learned how to harden 
their tools by melting a small amount of tin with the copper. This produced a mixture 
of tin and copper, called bronze, which is much harder than copper. It is not yet cer- 
tain where the first tin was obtained or who made the first bronze, but it may have come 
from the north side of the Mediterranean {Ancient Times, § 336). 



Egyptian Civilization 19 

He now sits before a small horizontal wheel, upon which he 
deftly shapes the vessel as it whirls round and round under his 
fingers. When the soft clay vessels are ready they are no longer 
unevenly burned in an open fire, as among the Late Stone Age 
potters in the Swiss lake-villages, but in closed furnaces. 

Here we also find craftsmen making glass. This art the 
Egyptians had discovered centuries earlier. They spread the 
glass on tiles in gorgeous glazes for adorning house and palace 
walls (see Ancient Times, plate, p. 164). Later they learned to 
make charming many-colored glass bottles and vases, which were 
widely exported. 

28. Weavers, Tapestry-makers, and Paper-makers. Yonder 
the weaving women draw forth from the loom a gossamer fabric 
of linen. The picture on this wall could not show us its fineness, 
but fortunately pieces of it have been found, wrapped around 
the mummy of a king of this age. These specimens of royal 
linen are so fine that it requires a magnifying glass to distin- 
guish them from silk, and the best work of the modern machine 
loom is coarse in comparison with this fabric of the ancient 
Egyptian hand loom. 

29. Life and Art in the Pyramid Age. Here on this chapel 
wall again we see its owner seated at ease in his palanquin, 
borne upon the shoulders of slaves. He is returning from the 
inspection of his estate, where we have been following him. His 
bearers carry him into the shady garden before his house, 
where they set down the palanquin and cease their song. This 
garden is the noble's favorite retreat. Here he may recline for an 
hour of leisure with his family and friends, playing at a game like 
checkers, listening to the music of harp, pipe, and lute, or watch- 
ing his women in the slow and stately dances of the time, while 
his children are sporting about among the arbors, splashing in 
the pool as they chase the fish, or playing with ball, doll, and 
jumping jack. 

The portrait sculptor was the greatest artist of this age. His 
statues were carved in stone or wood and painted in lifelike 
colors ; the eyes were inlaid with rock crystal. More lifelike 



20 General History of Europe 

portraits have never been produced by any age, although they 
are the earliest in the history of art. The statues of the kings are 
often superb. In size the most remarkable statue of the Pyramid 
Age is the Great Sphinx, which stands here in this cemetery of 
Gizeh. The head is a portrait of Khafre, the king who built the 
second pyramid of Gizeh. It was carved from a promontory of 
rock which overlooked the royal city, and is the largest portrait 
bust ever wrought. 

III. Civilization of the Empire 

30. The Period of the Empire (isso-iiso b. a). We have now 
seen the many things that the Egyptians had learned to make 
in the Pyramid Age. Another great age came long after, when 
about 1500 B.C. the Egyptian Pharaohs built up a huge empire 
including a large part of Western Asia and extending up to the 
Fourth Cataract of the Nile (see map, p. 24). The Napoleon of 
this period was Thutmose III, whose reign began about 1500 b.c. 
His armies subdued the cities and kingdoms of Western Asia and 
united them into an empire. He built the first great navy in 
history. He had many monuments erected in his honor, and one 
of them, an obelisk, stands in Central Park, New York, today. 

31. Thebes and its Ruins. Under the Empire the chief city 
was no longer Memphis but Thebes, lying over four hundred 
miles up the Nile. The temple of Karnak there contains the 
greatest colonnaded hall ever erected by man. The columns of 
the central aisle are sixty-nine feet high. The vast capital sur- 
mounting each of the columns is so large that a group of a hun- 
dred men could stand on it. Mirrored in the surface of the 
temple lake this building made a picture of splendor such as the 
world had never beheld before. 

The vast battle scenes carved on the temple walls were painted 
in bright colors. The gigantic statues of the Pharaohs, set up 
before the temples, were often so large that they rose above the 
towers of the temple front itself and could be seen for miles 
around. The sculptors often carved these colossal figures from 




The Obelisks- of Queen Hatshepsut and her Father Thutmose I 

at Karnak 

The farther obelisk is that of the queen. It was one of a pair transported 
from the First Cataract ( § 1 1 ) , but its mate has fallen and broken into 
pieces. The shaft is eight and a half feet thick at the base, and the human 
figure by contrast conveys some idea of the vast size of the monument. 
(From an etching by George T. Plowman) 




The Colossal Columns of the Nave in the Great Hall of Karnak 



These are the columns of the middle two rows in the nave (see Ancient 

Times, Fig. 68). The human figures below show by contrast the vast 

dimensions of the columns towering above them 



Egyptian Civilization 



21 



single blocks of stone eighty or ninety feet high, weighing as much 
as a thousand tons. Nevertheless the engineers of the Empire 
moved many such gigantic figures for hundreds of miles. It is in 
works of this massive. 



monumental character 
that the art of Egypt 
excelled. 

32. The Treasures 
of the Tombs. Across 
the Nile from Thebes, 
cut into the rocky cliffs 
which border the river 
valley, are hundreds of 
tombs in which the 
Pharaohs and the nobles 
of their time were buried. 
They are adorned with 
frescoes and sculpture, 
with pictures of the gods 
and scenes from the life 
led by the great of the 
time, interspersed with 
magnificent hieroglyphic 
inscriptions. They some- 
times contain the very 
furniture which their 
occupants had used, — 
chairs covered with gold 
and silver and fitted with soft cushions, beds of sumptuous work- 
manship, — jewel boxes and perfume caskets of the ladies, and even 
a gilded chariot in which a Theban noble took his afternoon airing 
thirty-three or thirty-four hundred years ago. Many of the 
articles have been removed to the museum at Cairo, and there is 
also a fine collection in the Metropolitan Museum of New York. 

The dead man's friends put into his mummy case rolls of 
papyrus containing prayers and magic charms to help him in 




Armchair from the House of an 
Egyptian Noble of the Empire 

This elaborately decorated chair, with other 
furniture from his house, was placed in his 
tomb at Thebes in the early part of the 
fourteenth century B.C. There it remained 
for nearly thirty-three hundred years, till 
it was discovered in 1905 and removed to 
the National Museum at Cairo 



22 General History of Europe 

finding his way through the troubles that would meet him in the 
next world. These guidebooks have been collected and form what 
is called the Egyptian "Book of the Dead." From this and the 
inscriptions in the chambers hidden away deep in the pyramids 
scholars have learned much of the Egyptian religion and of the 
many gods in which the people believed. Some of the leading 
Egyptians of the Empire finally came to believe in a single god, 
and one of the emperors, Ikhnaton, started a great religious reform 
in which he wished to substitute the idea of one god for the old 
belief in many. But the priests and people were too much attached 
to their ancient notions to accept the new gospel, and Ikhnaton 
perished in the attempt. He is the first distinguished religious 
reformer of history. 

33. Later Fate of Egypt. After the Egyptian Empire had 
lasted nearly four hundred years, invaders from the North — in- 
cluding many Europeans whom we left in the Stone Age — came in 
such numbers that they put an end to the ancient power of the 
Pharaohs, about 1150 b.c. But we know little of how it all hap- 
pened. Temples and tombs continued to be built for hundreds 
of years after the fall of the Empire, but they are, in general, 
mere imitations of the earlier ones. Egyptian culture spread into 
other countries and greatly affected Western Asia and, later, 
eastern Europe. The Egyptians were the first to make great 
progress in' industry, sculpture, painting, architecture, and govern- 
ment. The period of chief interest for us is that which we have 
sketched between the times of Menes (3400 b.c.) and that of 
Seti I and Ramses II, whose reigns closed in 1225 b.c. So the 
greatness of Egypt lasted for over two thousand years. 

Later, Egypt was successively conquered by the Assyrians, 
Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Turks, and finally came in 
recent times under the control of Great Britain. We must now 
turn to the civilizations which grew up in Western Asia during the 
period of Egypt's greatness and after her decline. 




Colossal Portrait Figure of Ramses II at Abu Simbel in 
Egyptian Nubia 

Four such statues, seventy-five feet high, adorn the front of this temple. 
The face of Ramses II here really resembles that of his mummy. There is 
from this point a grand view of the Nubian Nile, on which the statues have 
looked down for thirty-two hundred years. The picture was taken -from 
the top of the crown of one of the statues. (Photograph by The University 

of Chicago Expedition) 








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Egyptian Civilization 



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QUESTIONS 

I. Describe the chief geographical features of Egypt. Contrast pic- 
ture writing with phonetic writing. Give some examples of words which 
could be represented by pictures and some which could not. What are 
some of the* results of the invention of writing ? How was metal prob- 
ably discovered ? How did the use of metal contribute to the develop- 
ment of civilization? Describe some of the important uses of metal 
today. 

II. What is a mummy? What conditions in Egypt have served to 
make it a historical museum ? Give some examples of the objects which 
have been found in tombs. Describe the Great Pyramid. If the Great 
Pyramid could be set down near your schoolhouse, about how much 
space would it occupy ? Describe some of the chief industries in the 
Pyramid Age. Give some examples of the art in that period. 

III. Describe the temple of Karnak at Thebes. What treasures 
have been found in the tombs of the kings of the Empire? What 
countries came into control of Egypt after the fall of the Empire? 
Do you know how Great Britain came to control Egypt today? 

Note. The scene below shows us the life of the nomads referred to in the next chap- 
ter. The dark camel's-hair tents of these wandering shepherds are easily carried from 
place to place as they seek new pasturage. They live on the milk and flesh of the flocks 










CHAPTER III 

WESTERN ASIA : BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA, THE PERSIANS, 

AND THE HEBREWS 

I. Babylonia and Assyria 

34. The Sumerians. During the period when the Egyptians 
were building the pyramids, about 3000 B.C., early civilization was 
also developing in the valley of the two great rivers, the Tigris and 
the Euphrates. A people called the Sumerians had long before 
wandered down from the eastern mountains into the plain just 
above the Persian Gulf, the region later called Babylonia. Here 
they learned to dig irrigation trenches and raise large harvests of 
barley and wheat. They already possessed cattle, sheep, and goats. 
The ox drew the plow ; the donkey pulled wheeled carts and 
chariots, for the wheel as a burden-bearing device appeared here 
for the first time. 1 But the horse was still unknown. The smith 
had learned to fashion utensils of copper, but he did not at first 
know how to harden the copper into bronze by an admixture of 
tin (see § 26 and n.). The Sumerians built towns of sun-dried 
mud bricks. Each town with the land about it formed a little 
kingdom, which seems to have been generally fighting with its 
neighbors. 

35. Cuneiform Writing ; Numerals. The people began to 
keep their business accounts by making pictures on soft clay 
with the tip of a reed. Later, the outlines of these rude pictures 
were simplified into groups of wedge-shaped marks. Hence these 
signs are called cuneiform (Latin, cuneus, meaning "wedge"), or 
wedge-form, writing. 

The Sumerian system of numerals was not based on tens but 
sixties. A large number was given as so many sixties, just as 

1 Probably earlier than the wheel in the Swiss lake-villages of the Late Stone Age. 

24 



Western Asia 



25 



,3 



we say a score, fourscore, fivescore. From this unit of sixty 
has descended our division of the circle (six sixties), and of 
the hour and minute. 

36. The Semites. The 
great desert of Arabia 
extends northward as 
far as a crescent-shaped 
fertile belt stretching 
from Babylonia clear 
around to the Mediter- 
ranean coast. (This is 
called the " Fertile Cres- 
cent" on the map, p. 24, 
and colored green.) The 
desert had a sparse pop- 
ulation of nomads ( which 
means wandering shep- 
herds and herdsmen) 
who wandered about 
and pitched their tents 
wherever they could find 
water and grass at cer- 
tain seasons to feed 
their flocks. These no- 
mads belonged to the 
Semitic race, of which 
the Arabs and the 
Hebrews are the best- 
known members. When 
towns grew up here and 



Foot; turned 
around in 2 


C-, 


^ 


B3 


Donkey 


fa 


f^^ 


Bird ; turned 

over with feet 

to the right 


-f 


**r 


>-TtrJ£ 


Fish 


ft 


** 


* 


Star 


* 


*- 


►»¥- 


Ox ; turned 
over in 2 


V 


!£> 


tf* 


Sun or Day 





& 




Grain ; top of 

stalk turned 

over 


m 


»» 


y 



Early Babylonian Signs and the 
Original Pictures from which they 
Developed 

This list of eight signs shows clearly the pic- 
tures from which the signs came. The oldest 
form is in column i ; column 2 shows the 
departure from the picture and the appear- 
ance of the signs as the lines began to become 
wedges. In column 3 are the later forms, 
consisting only of wedges and showing no 
resemblance to the original picture 



there in the Fertile Crescent they were often attacked by the desert 
wanderers, who would now and then adopt town life themselves. 
37. The Semites on the West End of the Fertile Crescent. As 
early as 3000 b.c. these nomads were drifting in from the desert 
and settling in Palestine, on the western end of the Fertile Cres- 
cent, where we find them in possession of walled towns five 



26 



General History of Europe 



hundred years later. Here they were the predecessors of the 
Hebrews and were called Canaanites. Along the Mediterranean 
shores of north Syria some of these former desert wanderers — the 




f * * *1 ,; t At 1 >''\w — ;~-\WIaj 



Sfc:. ! Jla*lc™«fe*' 



Early Sumerian Clay Tablet with Cuneiform, or Wedge-Form 
Writing (Twenty-eighth Century b.c.) 

This tablet was written toward the close of the early period of the city- 
kings, a generation before the accession of Sargon I (§38). It contains 
business accounts. The scribe's writing-reed, or stylus, was usually square- 
tipped. He pressed a corner of this square tip into the soft clay for each line 
of the picture sign. Lines so produced tended to be broad at one end and 
pointed at the other; that is, wedge-shaped. Each picture sign thus became 
a group of wedges, as shown in the preceding illustration. When the clay 
dried it was hard enough to make the tablet a fairly permanent record. 
Such tablets were sometimes baked and thus became as hard as pottery. 
(By permission of Dr. Hussey) 

Phoenicians — took to the sea and became great traders (§83). By 
2000 b.c. all the settled communities had a civilization' largely 
adopted from the cities of Babylonia and Egypt. 




A King of Akkad storming a Fortress — the Earliest Great 
Semitic Work of Art (about 2700 b.c.) 

King Naram-Sin of Akkad, one of the successors of Sargon I (§38), has 
pursued the enemy into a mountain stronghold. His heroic figure towers 
above his pygmy enemies, each one of whom has fixed his eyes on the con- 
queror, awaiting his signal of mercy. The sculptor, with fine insight, has 
depicted the dramatic instant when the king lowers his weapon as the sign 
that he grants the conquered their lives 



28 General History of Europe 

38. Sargon I conquers the Sumerians about 2750 B.C. 

Semitic tribes from the desert invaded the region north of the 
Sumerian towns, and about 2750 B.C. the leader of these Semites, 
Sargon, a bold and able ruler, conquered the Sumerians and 
established the first important Semitic kingdom. The invaders 
took over the cuneiform characters to write their own language 
and forsook their tents and built brick houses instead. They 
learned all that the Sumerians had discovered, and in the matter 
of art, especially in sculpture, they far outstripped their teachers. 

39. Hammurapi. About 2100 b.c. another Semitic king, Ham- 
murapi, conquered all Babylonia (see map, p. 24). He is remem- 
bered chiefly for the code of laws that he had drawn up and 
engraved on a stone shaft, which has survived to our own day 
(Ancient Times, Fig. 93). Its provisions show much considera- 
tion of the poor and defenseless classes, but are not always just. 
Babylonia prospered greatly under the wise Hammurapi, and her 
merchants traveled far and wide. Through their bills, made out 
on clay tablets, the wedge-writing of Babylonia gradually spread 
through Western Asia. There was as yet no coined money, but 
lumps of silver of a given weight circulated so commonly that 
values were given in weight of silver. Loans were common, and 
the rate of interest was 20 per cent. Business was the chief 
occupation and was carried on even in the temples. 

40. Higher Life of Babylonia. A journey through Babylonia 
today could not tell us such a story as do the temples and tombs 
which still exist on the Nile, for the Babylon of Hammurapi has 
perished utterly. There seems to have been no painting, but we 
have at least one example of fine sculpture (see cut on page 27). 
Of architecture little remains. There were no colonnades and no 
columns, but the arch was used over front doorways. All build- 
ings were of brick, as Babylonia had no stone. There were 
schools where boys could learn to write cuneiform, and a school- 
house of Hammurapi's time still survives, though in ruins 
(Ancient Times, Fig. 95). 

41. Stagnation of Babylonian Civilization. After Hammu- 
rapi's death his kingdom swiftly declined. Barbarians from the 



Western Asia 



29 



mountains poured into the Baby- 
lonian plain. The most impor- 
tant thing about them was that 
they brought with them the 
horse, which then appeared in 
Babylonia for the first time 
(twenty-first century B.C.). The 
barbarians divided and soon de- 
stroyed the kingdom of Hammu- 
rapi. After him there followed 
more than a thousand years of 
total stagnation in Babylonia. 

42. The Assyrian Empire. 
There is nothing we need record 
here between the times of Ham- 
murapi and the rise of the great 
Assyrian Empire a thousand 
years after his death. Semites 
from the desert had founded the 
town of Assur (see map, p. 30) 
and adopted the civilization of 
the Sumerians to the south (in- 
cluding cuneiform, to write their 
Semitic dialect). These people 
of Assur, whom we call Assyr- 
ians, had by noo B.C. marched 
westward and looked out on the 
Mediterranean. It took three 
hundred years thoroughly to con- 
quer this region, but by 750 B.C. 
Assyria had firmly established 
herself along the Mediterranean. 
In the meantime she subdued 

Babylonia, thus gaining possession of the entire Fertile Crescent. 
She even gained control of Egypt in 670 and held it for a short 
time. Thus the once feeble little city of Assur gained the lordship 




Silver Vase of a Sumerian 
City-King 

This is the finest piece of metal 
work from early Babylonia. The 
eagle and lions which appear on it 
formed the symbol, or arms, of the 
Sumerian city-kingdom of Lagash. 
Such animal symbols passed over 
into Europe and were used in mod- 
ern times by Russia, Austria, Prus- 
sia, and other European nations. 
The eagle one sees on the United 
States coins is in a sense a de- 
scendant of the eagle of Lagash five 
thousand years ago 



30 General History of Europe 

over Western Asia as the head of an empire — a group of conquered 
and subject states. It was the most extensive empire that that 
world had yet seen (see map). 

43. Organization of the Assyrian Empire. To maintain the 
army was the chief work of the Assyrian government. The State 
was therefore a vast military machine, ruthless and terrible. From 
the Hittites (see map and § 76) iron had been introduced, and 
the Assyrian forces were the first large armies equipped with 
weapons of iron. The famous horsemen and chariots of Nineveh 
became the scourge of the East. 

For the first time, too, the Assyrians employed powerful siege 
machinery, especially the battering-ram. This device was the 
earliest "tank," for it ran on wheels and carried armed men (see 
Ancient Times, p. 140). The sun-dried-brick walls of the Asiatic 
cities could thus be battered down. Wherever the terrible Assyr- 
ian armies swept through the land, they left a trail of ruin and 
desolation behind, and there were few towns of the Empire which 
escaped being plundered. 

44. Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.) and his Capital, Nineveh. 
The Assyrian king Sennacherib was one of the great statesmen 
of the early Orient. He devoted himself to the city of Nine- 
veh, north of Assur, which now became the far-famed capital of 
Assyria. Here in his gorgeous palace he and his successors ruled 
the Western Asiatic world with an iron hand and collected tribute 
from all the subject peoples. 

45. Assyrian Palaces ; the Library of Assurbanipal. The 
Assyrian palaces were imposing buildings adorned with arches of 
brilliantly colored glazed tiles (see Ancient Times, Plate II, 
p. 164). Vast statues of human-headed bulls guarded the entrance. 
Within the palace there were long rows of reliefs cut in alabaster 
(see cuts on pages 32-34) depicting the king's exploits. Nowhere 
does the artist succeed in expressing any feeling in the human 
faces, but his animals are often represented full of life. 

In the excavations made in modern times at Nineveh a great 
library was found containing twenty-two thousand clay tablets. 
This was collected by Assurbanipal, the grandson of Sennacherib. 



Western Asia 



3i 




Portion of Old Babylonian Story of the Flood from 
Assurbanipal's Library at Nineveh 

This large flat tablet was part of an Assyrian cuneiform book 'consisting 
of a series of such tablets. This flood story tells how the hero, Ut-napishtim, 
built a great ship and thus survived a terrible flood, in which all his coun- 
trymen perished. Each of these clay tablet books collected by Assurbanipal 
for his library bore his "bookmark," just like a book in a modern library. 
To prevent anyone else from taking the book, or writing his name on it, 
the Assyrian king's bookmark contained the following warning: "Whosoever 
shall carry off this tablet, or shall inscribe his name upon it side by side with 
mine own, may Assur and Belit overthrow him in wrath and anger, and 
may they destroy his name and posterity in the land" 

It shows us all that the Assyrians and their predecessors had been 
able to learn. There are a great many works dealing with magic 
and methods of forecasting future events ; for instance, by watch- 
ing the actions of sick people and examining the entrails of 
animals. There are also religious works and some dealing with 
grammar and other subjects. 




Excavation of the Ruins of Ancient Nippur in Babylonia 



These ruins were excavated by the University of Pennsylvania Expedition in 
three campaigns between 1889 and 1900. This view shows the work of 
excavation going on. The earth (once sun-dried brick) is taken out in 
baskets and carried away by a long line of native laborers, who empty their 
baskets at the far end of an ever-growing bank of excavated earth. The 
ruinous buildings, once entirely covered, are slowly exposed, and among them 
often clay tablets or objects of pottery, stone, or metal. Thus are recov- 
ered the records and antiquities of ancient Babylonia. They lie at different 
levels, the oldest things nearer the bottom and the later ones higher up. 
The view to the horizon gives a good idea of the flat Babylonian plain. 
Only two generations ago the monuments and records of Babylonia and 
Assyria preserved in Europe could all be contained in a show case only a 
few feet square. Since 1840, however, archaeological excavation, as we call 
such digging, has recovered great quantities of antiquities and records. 
Such work is now slowly recovering for us the story of the ancient world. 
(Drawn from a photograph furnished by courtesy of the University 

Museum, Philadelphia) 






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Assyrian Soldiers of the Empire. (From Reliefs discovered in 
the Palace of Assurbanipal) 

It was the valor of these stalwart archers and spearmen which made Assyria 
mistress of the East for about a century and a half 



Western Asia 



33 



46. Decline of Assyrian Power. But the Assyrian Empire 
was so vast that it proved impossible to hold it together. The 
army had to be recruited from the farming and manufacturing 
classes. So the fields were left uncultivated and manufacture 
declined. Moreover, the foreign troops, which it was necessary to 
employ, formed a very dangerous element. Finally, Assyria was so 




An Assyrian King hunting Lions 



weakened that she could not resist the invasion of the Chaldeans, 
another Semitic tribe which had for many years been drifting 
along the shores of the Persian Gulf. 

47. Destruction of Nineveh by the Medes and Chaldeans 
(606 B.C.). The Chaldeans first conquered Babylonia and then, 
after combining with the Medes (§ 52), they attacked the 
Assyrian capital of Nineveh, and this mighty city fell into their 
hands in 606 b.c. The Assyrian Empire was at an end, and we 
can hear in the voice of the Hebrew prophet Nahum (ii, 8, 13, 
and iii entire) an echo of the exulting shout which resounded from 
the Caspian to the Nile when the nations realized that the terrible 
scourge of the East was no longer to be feared. Nineveh speedily 
became the vast heap of rubbish it remains today. 

48. Reign of Nebuchadnezzar (604-561 B.C.); Magnificence 
of Babylon. At Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest of the 
Chaldean emperors, began a reign of over forty years — a reign 
of such power and magnificence, especially as narrated in the 
Bible, that he has become one of the great figures of oriental 



34 



General History of Europe 



history. It was he who carried away many Hebrews from Pales- 
tine to Babylonia as captives and destroyed Jerusalem, their 
capital (586 B.C.). 

Copying much from Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar was able to sur- 
pass even his Assyrian predecessors in the splendor of the great 
buildings which he now erected at Babylon (see plan, Ancient 
Times, p. 165). Masses of rich tropical verdure, rising in terrace 




uuuniniuiiiiuiiiiiiii ii,iiiiiii»<//iimii»iimiiiiiiijftif/n . .. .'^MmMiiMWdMuiiumiiinniiwaii 



Glazed Brick Decoration from Nebuchadnezzar's 
Palace at Babylon 

The above lion figure adorned the wall of the throne room in the palace 
of Nebuchadnezzar at Babylon (§48). It is made of glazed brick in the 
brightest colors, which produced a gorgeous effect as architectural adorn- 
ment. This art arose in Egypt, passed thence to Assyria and Babylonia, 
and was then adopted by the Persians 



above terrace, crowned the roof of the gorgeous imperial palace, 
forming lofty roof gardens. Here in the cool shade of palms and 
ferns the great king might enjoy his leisure hours, looking down 
upon the splendors of his city. These roof gardens were the 
mysterious "Hanging Gardens" of Babylon, whose fame spread 
far into the West, until they were reckoned among the Seven 
Wonders of the World by the Greeks. The city was immensely 
extended by Nebuchadnezzar, and enormous fortified walls were 
built to protect it. It was this Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar which 
has become familiar to all Christian peoples as the great city of 
the Hebrew captivity (§64). So little survives of all the glories 



Western Asia 35 

which made it world-renowned in its time that nearly twenty 
years of excavation have recovered almost no standing buildings. 

49. Civilization of Chaldean Babylon. The Chaldeans seem 
to have adopted the civilization of Babylonia in much the same 
way as other earlier Semitic invaders of this ancient plain. 
Science made notable progress in one important branch — astron- 
omy. This was really at that time only what we call "astrology" ; 
namely, a study of the heavenly bodies with the idea that one 
could forecast the future by observing the movements of the sun, 
moon, and planets. The equator was divided into 360 degrees, 
and for the first time the Chaldean astrologers laid out the twelve 
groups of stars which we call the "Twelve Signs of the Zodiac." 
The observations made by these Chaldean astrologers became so 
accurate that they were actually able to foretell an eclipse of 
the sun. These discoveries formed the basis of the science of 
astronomy, which the Greeks carried much further. Astrology 
was much studied in Europe during the Middle Ages. We un- 
consciously recall it in such phrases as "his lucky star" or an 
"ill-starred" undertaking. We still use the seven-day week which 
prevailed in Babylonia. The Chaldeans named the days of the 
week after the sun, moon, and five planets then known. Three 
of our days — Saturday (Saturnday), Sunday, and Monday 
(Moonday) — are still named after the heavenly bodies. 

II. The Indo-European Peoples : the Persian Empire 

50. Origin of the Indo-European Races. W T e have seen how 
Semitic nomads of the Arabian desert had repeatedly shifted over 
into the Fertile Crescent, conquered the town-dwellers there, and 
adopted their civilization. To the north were peoples of a differ- 
ent race, who were pasturing their flocks in the great stretch of 
grassland which extends north and east of the Caspian Sea and 
westward across what is now Russia to the lower Danube. These 
nomads of the North were the ancestors of the Persians, Greeks, 
Romans, Slavs, and the Germanic peoples, and consequently of 
the Europeans of today. They began moving about at a very 



36 General History of Europe 

remote date. Some of them invaded India, and some of them got 
as far west as Britain. They are therefore commonly called the 
Indo-European peoples. 

The Indo-European races were destined to conquer the older 
kingdoms of the Semites and raise civilization to a far higher 
point than it had previously reached. The parent people — 
sometimes called the Aryans — from which these races sprang 
seems to have been occupying the pasture lands to the east and 
northeast of the Caspian about 2500 B.C. Some of them had 
adopted an agricultural life, but they were still in the Stone Age 
except for some little use of copper. Besides cattle and sheep 
they had horses, which they rode and employed to pull their 
wheeled carts. They could not write. 

51. The Indo-European Languages. As the Aryan tribes dis- 
persed east and west and south they lost all contact with one an- 
other. While they originally spoke the same language, differences 
in speech gradually arose and finally became so great that the 
widely scattered tribes, even if they happened to meet, could no 
longer make themselves understood. At last they lost all knowl- 
edge of their original relationship. But the languages of modern 
civilized Europe, having sprung from the same Indo-European 
parent language, are therefore related to each other ; so that, 
beginning with our own language in the West and going eastward 
across Europe into northern India, we can trace more than one 
common word from people to people. Note the following: 

EAST 
East Indian 
(Sanskrit) 

bhrata 

mata 

pita 

52. Medes and Persians. Of the Aryan peoples settled east 
of the Caspian Sea some wandered into India. In their sacred 
books, which we call the Vedas, written in Sanskrit, we find many 
allusions to their earlier less civilized life. Other tribes pushed 
southwestward toward the Fertile Crescent. Of these the most 



U Ml 

English 


German 


Latin 


■- r 

Greek 


Old Persian 


brother 


bruder 


frater 


phrater 


brata 


mother 


mutter 


mater 


meter 


matar 


father 


vater 


pater 


pater 


pitar 



Western Asia 37 

powerful were the Medes and the Persians. The Medes first es- 
tablished an extensive empire east of the Tigris. After the fall of 
the Assyrian Empire (606 b.c.) the Medes became an object of 
dread to their neighbors, especially to the Chaldeans of Babylonia. 

53. The Religion of Zoroaster. The Medes and Persians were 
as yet far inferior in civilization to the Semites of the Fertile 
Crescent, but in one respect they had made a great advance. Two 
or three hundred years earlier a religious teacher had appeared 
among them, Zoroaster, who had thought out a religion that was 
destined to influence us down to the present day. He pondered 
much on the good and evil in life and the ceaseless struggle be- 
tween them. The Good became for him a divine being whom he 
called Mazda, or Ahuramazda, and regarded as God. Ahura- 
mazda was surrounded by a group of helpers much like angels, 
of whom one of the greatest was the Light, called "Mithras." 
Opposed to Ahuramazda and his helpers was an evil group led 
by a great Spirit of Evil named Ahriman. It was he who later 
became the Satan of the Jews and Christians. 

Thus the faith of Zoroaster called upon every man to stand on 
one side or the other, to fill his soul with the Good and the Light 
or to dwell in the Evil and the Darkness. Whatever course a 
man pursued, he must expect a judgment hereafter. This was the 
earliest appearance in Asia of belief in a last judgment. Zoroaster 
maintained the old Aryan veneration of fire as a visible symbol 
of the Good and the Light. The new faith had gained a firm 
footing among the Persians ; and Mithras, the god of light, was 
worshiped centuries later by many of the Romans, who preferred 
this religion to the newly introduced Christianity. 

54. Cyrus and his Conquests. A great leader now arose among 
the Persians, Cyrus the Great. He first attacked and defeated his 
neighbors the Medes (549 b.c), to whom the Persians had been 
subject, and made himself master of their territory. He then 
became the first great conqueror and empire-builder of Indo- 
European blood. 

With a powerful Persian army that he had rapidly built up, 
Cyrus marched far to the west into Asia Minor and conquered 



38 



General History oj Europe 



the kingdom of Lydia. He captured its capital, Sardis, and took 
prisoner its king, the wealthy and powerful Croesus (546 B.C.). 
Within five years the power of the little Persian kingdom had 

thus swept across Asia 



C«L 




Minor to the Mediterra- 
nean and had become the 
leading state in the orien- 
tal world. Turning back 
eastward Cyrus had no 
trouble in defeating the 
Chaldean army led by the 
young crown prince Bel- 
shazzar, whose name in 
the Book of Daniel (see 
Dan. v) is a well-known 
word throughout the 
Christian world. In spite 
of the vast walls erected 
by Nebuchadnezzar to 
protect Babylon, the Per- 
sians entered the great 
city in 539 B.C. seemingly 
without resistance. 

Thus the Semitic East 
completely collapsed be- 
fore the advance of the 
Indo-European power, 
only sixty-seven years 
after the Chaldean con- 
quest of Nineveh (§ 47). 
All Western Asia was now subject to the Persian kings. In 
525 b.c, only three years after the death of Cyrus, his son 
Cambyses conquered Egypt. This conquest of the only remain- 
ing ancient oriental power rounded out the Persian Empire to 
include the whole civilized Orient from the Nile delta around the 
entire eastern end of the Mediterranean to the ^Egean Sea and 



Relief showing Persian Soldiers 
in Babylonian Garments 

Although carrying spears when doing duty 
as palace guards, these men were chiefly 
archers, as is shown by the size of the large 
cases, or quivers, on their backs for con- 
taining the supply of arrows. The bow 
hangs on the left shoulder 



Western Asia 



39 



from this western boundary eastward almost to India (see map, 
p. 30). The great task had consumed just twenty-five years 
since the overthrow of the Medes by Cyrus. 

55. Organization of the Persian Empire by Darius. The 
organization of this vast empire, stretching from the Indus River 
to the iEgean Sea 
(almost as long as the 
United States from 
east to west) and from 
the Indian Ocean to 
the Caspian Sea, was a 
colossal task. Though 
begun by Cyrus, it was 
carried through by 
Darius the Great 
(521-485 B.C.). His 
organization was one 
of the most remark- 
able achievements in 
the history of the 
world. For the system 
introduced by Darius 
not only established 
government on a larger 
scale than the world 
had ever seen before, 
but it was govern- 
ment controlled by 
one man. 

Darius did not desire further conquests. He had himself made 
actual king in Egypt and in Babylonia. The rest of the Empire 
he divided into twenty provinces, each called a "satrapy." Each 
province was under the control of a governor, or "satrap," who 
was appointed by the "Great King," as the Persian sovereign 
came to be called. The, subject nations, or provinces, enjoyed a 
good deal of independence in their local affairs as long as they 




Colonnades or the Palace of the Persian 
Kings at Persepolis 

This sumptuous and ornate architecture of the 

Persians is made up of patterns borrowed from 

other peoples and combined 



40 General History of Europe 

paid regular tribute and furnished soldiers for the army of the 
Great King. In the east this tribute was paid, as of old, in prod- 
uce of various kinds. But in western Asia Minor, especially in 
Lydia and the Greek settlements on the coast, the coinage of 
metal had become common by 600 B.C., and the payments were 
made in coined money (§ 93). 

56. Persia becomes a Sea Power. Unlike the Assyrians the 
Persian rulers built up a great sea power, and we shall find later 
how they used it against the Greeks. They treated the Phoeni- 
cians kindly and with their cooperation constructed a war fleet in 
the eastern Mediterranean. Darius restored the ancient Egyptian 
canal connecting the Nile with the Red Sea. This enabled his 
vessels to sail from the Persian Gulf clear around into the Medi- 
terranean. Roads were also built throughout the Empire, and a 
regular postal service was established. 

The later world, especially the Greeks, often represented the 
Persian rulers as cruel and barbarous tyrants. This unfavorable 
opinion is not wholly justified. For there can be no doubt that 
the Persian Empire, the largest the ancient world had thus far 
seen, enjoyed a government more just and humane than any that 
had preceded it in the East. 

The religious beliefs 0/ the Persians spread among other peoples 
and even into Europe ; but far more important than Zoroastrian- 
ism for the Western world was the religion of the Hebrews. We 
must therefore consider the little Hebrew kingdom among the 
Persian vassals in the West, which was destined to influence the 
history of Europe profoundly. 

III. The Hebrews 

57. Hebrew Invasion of Palestine (about 1400-1200 b. a). 
The Hebrews were all originally nomads of the Arabian desert. 
For two centuries, beginning about 1400 B.C., they were gradually 
drifting along the west end of the Fertile Crescent into their final 
home in Palestine. Some of the Hebrew tribes had been slaves 
in Egypt, but had been induced to flee by their leader, Moses. 



Western Asia 



4i 



On entering Palestine the Hebrews found the Canaanites 
already dwelling there in flourishing towns with massive walls. 
They had comfortable houses, a well-developed government, in- 
dustries, trade, and writing. The Hebrews settled on the land 
around the towns of the Canaanites and gradually adopted their 
civilization. 

58. Rise of the Hebrew Kingdom (about 1025-930 B.C.). 
Even after the Hebrews had set up a king the old nomad customs 





Ancient Egyptian Painting of a Brickyard with Asiatic Captives 
engaged in brickmaking (fifteenth century b. c.) 

The Hebrew slaves working in the Egyptian brickyards (see Exod. i, 14 and 
v, 6-19 must have looked like this when Moses led them forth into Asia. 
At the left below, the soft clay is being mixed in two piles ; one laborer helps 
load a basket of clay on the shoulder of another, who carries it to the brick- 
molder, at the right above. Here a laborer empties the clay from his basket, 
while the molder before him fills with clay an oblong box, which is the mold. 
He has already finished three bricks. At the left above, a molder spreads out 
the soft bricks with spaces between for the circulation of air to make them 
dry quickly in the sun. The overseer, staff in hand, sits in the upper right- 
hand corner, and below him we see a workman carrying away the dried 
bricks, hanging from a yoke on his shoulders. Thus were made the bricks 
used for thousands of years for the buildings forming so large a part of the 
cities of the ancient world, from the Orient to Athens and Rome 

were still strong; for Saul, their first king (about 1025 B.C.), had 
no fixed home, but lived in a tent. His successor, David, saw the 
importance of a strong castle as the king's permanent home. He 
therefore seized the Canaanite fortress of Jerusalem and made it 
his residence. From this new capital David extended his power 1 

1 For a fuller account of Palestine and the Hebrews see Ancient Times, chap. vii. 



42 General History of Europe 

and raised the Hebrews to a far more important position than they 
had ever before occupied. His people never forgot his heroic 
deeds as a warrior nor his skill as a poet and singer. Centuries 
later they revered him as the author of many of their religious 
songs, or "psalms." 

59. Solomon and the Division of the Kingdom (about 
930 B.C.), David's son, Solomon, delighted .in oriental luxury 
and splendor. To support his extravagance he weighed down the 
people with heavy taxes. The discontent was so great that when 
Solomon died the northern tribes set up a king of their own. Thus 
the Hebrew nation was divided into two kingdoms before it was 
a century old. 

There was much hard feeling between the two Hebrew realms, 
and sometimes fighting. Israel, as we call the northern kingdom, 
was rich and prosperous ; its market places were filled with busi- 
ness ; its fertile fields produced plentiful crops. • Israel possessed 
the wealth and luxury of town life. On the other hand, Judah, 
the southern kingdom, was poor ; her land was meager. Besides 
Jerusalem, the capital, she had no large and prosperous towns. 
Many of the people still led the wandering life of shepherds. 

These two kinds of life came into conflict in many ways, 
but especially in religion. Every Canaanite town had for cen- 
turies worshiped its "baal," or lord, as its local god was called. 
The Hebrew townsmen found it very natural to worship these 
gods of their neighbors. They were thus unfaithful to their own 
Hebrew God Yahveh (or Jehovah). 1 

60. The Unknown Historian, Earliest Writer of History 
(Eighth Century B.C.). Thoughtful Hebrews began to feel the 
inequalities which are a result of town life. They saw that the 
rich city people had showy clothes, fine houses, and beautiful 
furniture, but were hard-hearted toward the poor. These social 
differences were not so striking in the simple nomad life of the 
desert. Men who resented the luxuries of the city-dwellers turned 

!The Hebrews pronounced the name of their God "Yahveh." The pronunciation 
" Jehovah " began less than six hundred years ago and was due to a misunderstanding 
of the pronunciation of the Hebrew word " Yahveh." 



Western Asia 43 

fondly back to the grand old days of their shepherd wanderings 
on the broad reaches of the desert, where no man "ground the 
faces of the poor." It was a gifted Hebrew 1 of this kind who 
put together a simple narrative history of the Hebrew fore- 
fathers — a glorified picture of their shepherd life. He told the 
immortal tales of the Hebrew patriarchs, of Abraham and Isaac, 
of Jacob and Joseph. These, preserved to us in the Old Testa- 
ment, are among the noblest literature which has survived from 
the past. 

61. Amos and the Prophets. Amos, a simple herdsman clad 
in sheepskin, who came from the South, entered the towns of the 
wealthy North and denounced the rich for their sinful lives and 
disregard of the poor, whose lands they seized for debt and 
whose labor they profited from by enslaving them. By such bold 
talk Amos endangered his life, but he may be regarded as the first 
social reformer known in Asia. We apply the term "prophet" 
to the Hebrew leaders who, like Amos, exhorted people to unsel- 
fish living, brotherly kindness, and higher conceptions of God 
and religion. 

62. The Hebrews learn to Write. The peoples of Western 
Asia were now abandoning the clay tablets so long in use (§§ 35, 
45) and beginning to write on papyrus with Egyptian pen and ink. 
The Hebrews borrowed an alphabet from their neighbors (§84) 
and began to reduce their traditions, laws, and religious ideas 
to writing. 

The rolls containing the unknown historian's tales of the 
patriarchs or the teachings of such men as Amos were the first 
books which the Hebrews produced. But literature remained the 
only art the Hebrews possessed. They had no painting, sculpture, 
or architecture, and if they needed these things they borrowed from 
their great neighbors, Egypt, Phoenicia, Damascus, or Assyria. 

63. Destruction of the Northern Kingdom by Assyria 
(722 B.C.). As Amos had foreseen, the Assyrians crushed the 

1 Unfortunately we do not know his name, for the Hebrews themselves early lost all 
knowledge of his identity and finally associated the surviving fragments of his work with 
the name of Moses. 



44 General History of Europe 

kingdom of Israel, and Samaria, its capital, was captured by 
them in 722 b.c. Many of the unhappy northern Hebrews were 
carried away as captives, and Israel was destroyed after having 
existed as a separate kingdom for a little over two centuries. 

The national hopes of the Hebrews were now centered in the 
helpless little kingdom of Judah (see map, p. 42), which still 
struggled on for over a century and a quarter. More helpless 
than Belgium in 19 14, Judah was now entangled in a great world 
conflict, in which Assyria was the most dangerous power. Thus 
far the Hebrews had been accustomed to think of their God as 
dwelling and ruling in Palestine only. Did he have power also 
over the vast world arena where all the great nations were fight- 
ing? But even if he did, was not Assur, the great god of vic- 
torious Assyria, stronger than Yahveh, the God of the Hebrews? 
A wonderful deliverance of Jerusalem from the cruel Assyrian 
army of Sennacherib (701 B.C.) enabled the great prophet Isaiah 
to proclaim to the Hebrews that Yahveh, their God, controlled the 
great world arena, where He, and not Assur, was the triumphant 
champion. 

64. Destruction of the Southern Kingdom by Chaldea 
(586 B.C.). A century later Jerusalem rejoiced over the fall of 
Assyria and the destruction of Nineveh (§ 47). But it had only 
exchanged one foreign lord for another, for Chaldea followed 
Assyria in control of Palestine (§48). Then their unwillingness 
to submit brought upon the men of Judah the same fate which 
their kindred of Israel had suffered. In 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, 
the Chaldean king of Babylonia, destroyed Jerusalem and carried 
away the people to exile in Babylonia. 

65. Restoration of the Exiled Hebrews by the Persian 
Kings. When the victorious Cyrus entered Babylon (§ 54) the 
Hebrew exiles there greeted him as their deliverer. His triumph 
gave the Hebrews a Persian ruler. With great humanity the 
Persian kings allowed the exiles to return to their native land. 
Some had prospered in Babylonia and did not care to return. But 
at different times enough of them went back to Jerusalem to re- 
build the city on a very modest scale and to restore the temple. 



Western Asia 45 

The Hebrews were permitted to issue a code of religious laws, 
which formed the basis of their government. The Hebrew king- 
ship was not revived after the Exile. The high priest at Jerusalem 
became the nation's leader. The Jewish State thus became a 
religious organization with a priest at its head. 

66. The Old Testament. The returned exiles arranged and 
copied the ancient writings of their fathers, such as the accounts 
of the patriarchs by the unknown historian and the books of the 
prophets, — Amos, Isaiah, and others. They also added writings 
of their own. This collection forms the sacred Scriptures of the 
Jews down to the present day and that part of the Christian Bible 
called the Old Testament. 

67. Summary of the Achievements of the Ancient Orient. 
What did the Ancient Orient really accomplish for the human 
race in the course of this long period we have been sketching ? It 
gave the world the first highly developed practical arts, like metal 
work, weaving, glass-making, paper-making, and many other simi- 
lar industries. To distribute the products of these industries among 
other peoples and carry on commerce, it built the earliest seagoing 
ships equipped with sails. It first was able to move great weights 
and undertake large building enterprises — large even for us of 
today. The early Orient, therefore, brought forth the first great 
group of inventions, surpassed in importance only by those of 
the modern world.' 

The Orient also gave us the earliest architecture in stone 
masonry, including the colonnade, the arch, and the tower -or 
spire. It produced the earliest refined sculpture, from the colos- 
sal statues of Egypt to the finest cutting of gems. It gave us 
writing and the earliest alphabet. To literature it contributed the 
earliest examples of narrative prose, poems, historical works, and 
social discussions. It gave us the calendar we still use. It first 
introduced weights and measures and introduced business methods 
and trade on a large scale. It made a beginning in mathematics, 
astronomy, and medicine. It first produced government on a 
large scale, whether of a single great nation or of an empire 
made up of a group of nations. 



46 General History of Europe 

Finally, in religion the East developed the earliest belief in 
one God and his fatherly care for all men, and laid the founda- 
tions of a religious life from which came forth the founder of 
the leading religion of the civilized world today. For these things, 
accomplished — most of them — while Europe was still unde- 
veloped, our debt to the Orient is enormous. 

68. Lack of Freedom, Political and Mental, in the Ancient 
Orient. There were some very important things, however, which 
the Orient had not yet gained. It had always accepted as a 
matter of course the rule of a king. It had never occurred to 
anyone there that the people should have something to say about 
how they should be governed. No one had ever gained the idea 
of a free citizen, with the feeling we call patriotism and a right 
to influence the selection of government officials. Liberty as 
we understand it was unknown, and the rule of the people, which 
we call "democracy," was never dreamed of in the Orient. 

Just as the orientals accepted the rule of kings without ques- 
tion, so they accepted the rule of the gods. They thought that 
every storm was due to the interference of some god and that 
every eclipse must be the angry act of a god or demon. Hence 
the orientals made little inquiry into the natural causes of such 
things. In general, then, they suffered from a lack of freedom of 
the mind — a kind of intellectual bondage to religion and to old 
ideas. Under these circumstances natural science could not go 
very far, and religion was much darkened by superstition. 

69. Transition to Europe. There were, therefore, still bound- 
less things for mankind to do in government, in thought about 
the natural world, in gaining deeper insight into the wonders and 
beauties of nature, as well as in art, in literature, and in many 
other lines. This future progress was to be made in Europe — 
that Europe which we left, at the end of our first chapter, in the 
Late Stone Age. Therefore, we must now turn back, to follow 
across the eastern Mediterranean the course of rising civilization, 
as it passed from the Orient to our forefathers in early Europe 
,four to five thousand years ago. 



Western Asia 47 

QUESTIONS 

I. Describe the earlier civilization of the Tigris-Euphrates valley. 
Compare cuneiform writing with Egyptian hieroglyphics. Why do 
almost all races use the decimal system ? What was the Sumerian 
system of counting, and in what ways does it survive today ? Describe 
the Fertile Crescent. Why do you think it played so important a part 
in the history of Western Asia ? How do the Semites get their name ? 
What well-known peoples belong to the Semitic race ? Describe the 
Semitic occupation of Babylonia. Why do historians know so much 
more about ancient Egypt than about Babylonia? What do we mean 
by an empire? Give some modern examples.. Why is a strong army 
more necessary for an empire than a democracy ? Give the extent of 
the Assyrian Empire. Describe the Assyrian civilization. Find some ref- 
erences to Nineveh in the Bible. Why was the city of Babylon so cele- 
brated under the Chaldean rulers ? What does the Bible say about 
Nebuchadnezzar? What discoveries were made by the Chaldean as- 
trologers ? What have we in modern times which should remind us 
of Babylonia? Can you find out why the French and Germans have 
named the days of the week as they have and what is the origin of 
our names for them ? 

II. Who were the Aryans (see Ancient Times)} Tell what you 
know of the origin and migrations of the Indo-European peoples. Give 
an example of a word which has changed as the tribes of Indo- 
Europeans dispersed. What peoples today belong to this group? Tell 
what you know of the religion of Zoroaster. Do its teachings bear 
any resemblance to Christianity? Describe the development of the 
Persian Empire. How was their government arranged by Darius? 
What additional power did Persia develop which helped her in her 
conquests ? 

III. Give a brief account of the political history of the Hebrews. 
What is the origin of the first five books of the Bible? How did the 
Hebrew nation come to be a religious organization? What work was 
done on the Hebrew Scriptures in the "poet-exilic" period? What 
important industries today owe their origin to the Orient? What arts 
were begun in the Orient? What were some of the limitations of the 
ancient world? How did the ideas of government differ from ours 
today? In what way did the theory of the gods interfere with the 
progress of science? 



BOOK II. THE GREEKS 

CHAPTER IV 

THE COMING OF THE GREEKS — THEIR EARLY 
ACHIEVEMENTS 

I. The ^Egean Civilization 

70. How Europe gained its Higher Civilization from Egypt 
and Western Asia. In the first chapter of this history we followed 
the slow progress of mankind in Europe during the long Stone 
Ages. We found that in the Late Stone Age, to judge from the 
remains of villages on the shores of lakes and banks of rivers, 
the peoples of Europe had learned to cultivate fields and tame 
animals, to make pottery, to spin and weave (§ 8). But their 
ability to progress by themselves appears to have come to an end. 
They continued to live in a state of barbarism similar to that of 
many of the Indian tribes of North America before the arrival of 
the Spanish, French, and English. They did not learn how to 
write, how to work metals into useful articles, erect buildings of 
fine stone masonry, or construct sailing ships for trade. In short, 
they failed to rise to a civilized life like that we have found in 
the Orient. 

Meanwhile, as we have seen, in Egypt and in Western Asia men 
who had formerly used stone weapons and been as ignorant as 
the men of the Late Stone Age in Europe had begun to make 
wonderful discoveries and inventions. They had learned to write 
arid to use metals and make beautiful statues, furniture, and 
jewelry and build great and imposing structures. In the second 
and third chapters we studied some of the wonderful things ac- 
complished by the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, for it 

48 " 



The Coming of the Greeks 49 

was from them that Europe first received its higher civilization, 
art and learning. We must now follow the way in which the 
inventions and knowledge of the eastern Mediterranean spread 
gradually into Europe and awakened its peoples from their bar- 
barous slumber of the Late Stone Age. It was natural that the 
portion of Europe which lay nearest to Egypt should first be 
affected ; namely, the region around the Mgean Sea. 

71 The JEgean World. The ^gean Sea is like a large lake, 
almost completely encircled by the surrounding shores of Europe 
and Asia Minor, while the long island of Crete on the south lies 
like a breakwater, shutting off the Mediterranean (see map, 
p 50) From north to south this sea is at no point more than 
four hundred miles in length. Its coast is deeply indented with 
many bays and harbors, and it is thickly sprinkled with hun- 
dreds of islands so that it is often possible to sail from one island 
to another in an hour or two. This sea, with its islands and the 
fringe of shores around it, forms a region by itself. 

It enjoys a mild and sunny climate. Here and there on the 
bold and beautiful shores river valleys and plains descend to the 
water's edge. On these lowlands wheat, barley, grapes, and olives 
grow well, so bread, olive oil, and wine were the chief articles of 
food, as they are among most Mediterranean peoples today. 

The ^gean people were the predecessors of the Greeks, who, 
as we shall see, finally swept down from the north and for a time 
destroyed much of the civilization which the ^geans had devel- 
oped. These predecessors of the Greeks were, like them, a gifted 
white race, but in no way related to them, and they spoke an 
entirely different language. 

72. Rise of Cretan Civilization under Egyptian Influence 
, (3000-2000 B.C.). Because of their nearness to Egypt, it was on 
the ^gean islands and not on the mainland of Europe that the 
earliest high civilization on the north side of the Mediterranean 
grew up From the beginning the leader in this civilization 
of the ^geans was the island of Crete. The little sun-dried- 
brick villages, forming the Late Stone Age settlements of Crete, 
received copper from the ships of the Nile by 3000 b.c. They 



50 



General History oj Europe 



soon learned to make bronze, and thus the Bronze Age began in 
Crete. While the great pyramids of Egypt were being built the 
Cretan craftsmen were learning from their Egyptian neighbors 
the use of the potter's wheel, the closed oven for baking pottery, 







Egypt Crete 

Early Stone Vases of Crete and the Egyptian Originals from 
which they were copied 

The earlier vases from Egypt (on the left) compared with those of Crete 

(on the right) show that the Cretan craftsmen copied the Egyptian forms in 

the latter part of the Pyramid Age (about 2700-2600 B.C.) 

and many other important things. A system of writing was in- 
vented, but scholars have not yet learned how to read the 
Cretan inscriptions. 

By 2000 B.C. the Cretans had become a highly civilized people. 
Cnossus (see map, p. 50) became the capital of their kingdom, 
which may have included a large part of the island. They 
rapidly learned the art of navigation from the Egyptians. Their 
ships, the earliest sailed by Europeans, were so numerous that 
their rulers are often called the "sea kings of Crete." Ruins of 
their earliest palace are still standing at Cnossus. 



The Coming of the Greeks 



5i 



73. The Grand Age in Crete (about 1600-1500 B.C.). A 

few centuries of such development carried the Cretan civilization 
to its highest level, to what we may call its Grand Age (about 
1600-1500 b.c). The older palace of Cnossus gave way to a 





Two Cretan Vases showing Progress in the Art of Decoration 

larger and more splendid building with a colonnaded hall, fine 
stairways, and impressive open courts. Its walls were painted 
with fresh and beautiful scenes from daily life, full of movement 
and action. After learning the Egyptian art of glass-making 
the Cretans adorned their buildings with glazed figures. Noble 
vases (see accompanying illustrations) were painted or modeled 
in relief with designs drawn from plant life or often from the 
life of the sea, on which the Cretans were now more and more at 
home. This wonderful pottery belongs among the finest works 
of decorative art ever produced by any people (see also Ancient 
Times, §§ 341-342 and Figs. 136-141). 



52 General History of Europe 

74. Cretan Civilization on the European Mainland (about 
1500-1200 B.C.). Up to this time the mainland, both in Europe 
and in Asia Minor, had continued to lag behind the civilization of 
the islands. Nevertheless, the fleets of Egypt and of Crete traded 
with the mainland of Greece. In the plain of Argos, ^Egean 
chieftains were sufficiently civilized after 1500 B.C. to build the 
massive strongholds of Tiryns and Mycenae. They imported 




The Mound containing the Nine Cities of Ancient Troy (Ilium) 

When the celebrated archaeologist Schliemann first visited this mound (see 
map, p. 50) in 1868, it was about one hundred and twenty-five feet high, 
and the Turks were cultivating grain on its summit. In 1870 he excavated 
a pit like a crater in the top of the hill, passing downward in the course 
of four years through nine successive cities built each on the ruins of its 
predecessors. At the bottom of his pit (about fifty feet deep) Schliemann 
found the original once bare hilltop, about seventy-five feet high, on which 
the men of the Late Stone Age had established a small settlement of sun- 
baked-brick houses about 3000 b.c. Above the scanty ruins of this Late 
Stone Age settlement rose, in layer after layer, the ruins of the later 
cities, with the Roman buildings at the top. The entire depth of fifty feet 
of ruins represented a period of about thirty-five hundred years from the 
First City (Late Stone Age) to the Ninth City (Roman) at the top. The 
Sixth City was that of the Trojan War and the Homeric sOngs 

works of Cretan and Egyptian pottery and metal work, which 
are today the earliest tokens of a life of higher refinement on the 
continent of Europe (see Ancient Times, § 364). 

75. Troy (about 3000-1200 B.C.). Along the Asiatic side 
of the ^Egean Sea we find much earlier progress than on the 
European side. In the days when metal was first introduced into 
Crete (after 3000 B.C.) there arose at the northwest corner of 
Asia Minor a shabby little Late Stone Age trading station known 
as Troy. Though several times destroyed, as modern excavations 
show, it was rebuilt and finally came to control a kingdom of 




: :: : :: : :: ' , 












Wild Bulls pictured by a Cretan Goldsmith around Two 

Golden Cups 

These cups, m ade of gold, were f found 1 at Vaphio, ^*£~ *££ 
whither they were imported from Crete, ine go 

marvelous designs with a hammer and j punch .over a mold and t ^ 

finer details with a graving tool. His work must . oe : 

greatest works of art produced by any people 




Ivory and Gold Statuette of a Cretan Lady. (Boston Museum 

of Fine Arts) 

The proud little figure stands with shoulders thrown far back and arms 
extended, each hand grasping a golden serpent, which coils about her arms 
to the elbow. She wears a high tiara perched daintily on her elaborately 
curled hair. Her dress consists of a flounced skirt and a tight bodice taper- 
ing to her slender waist. The whole forms a costume surprisingly modern. 
The figure is carved in ivory, while the flounces are edged with bands of 
gold and the belt about the waist is of the same metal. She represents 
either the great Cretan mother goddess or possibly only a graceful snake- 
charmer of the court. In any case the sculptor has given her the appearance 
of one of the noble ladies of his time. Even the Greek sculptor never 
surpassed the vitality and the winsome charm which passed from the fingers 
of the ancient Cretan artist into this tiny figure 



The Coming of the Greeks 



53 




considerable size in northwestern Asia Minor. About 1500 b.c. 
this flourishing city had become a powerful rival of Cnossus. We 
are more familiar with the name of Troy than with that of any 
other iEgean city, owing to Homer's account of its later capture 
by the Greeks. 

76. The Hittites. In recent years scholars have become much 
interested in the empire of the Hittites, which stretched across 
Asia Minor east of 
Troy. A great deal 
is now being learned 
about this impor- 
tant people, of 
which formerly very 
little was known. 
It will be recalled 



that they are fre- 
quently mentioned 
in the Bible. Their 
empire appears to 
have reached its 
height about 1450 
b.c. Perhaps for us 
the chief interest 
of the Hittites is 
that they discov- 
ered rich deposits 
of iron and were 
the first important 
distributors of a metal which was to replace copper and bronze 
and become one of the main foundations of our modern civiliza- 
tion, since without iron, and the steel derived from it, we could 
hardly imagine the steam engine and all the machinery upon 
which we have come to rely (Ancient Times, §§ 351-360). 

77. Summary. As we look at the map (p. 50) we see that 
Greece and the -ZEgean islands, together with Troy and Asia Minor, 
had, about 1500 b.c, developed into a civilized world on the north 



An Ancient Hittite and his Modern 
Armenian Descendant 

At the left is the head of an ancient Hittite as 
carved by an Egyptian sculptor on the wall of a 
temple at Thebes, Egypt, over three thousand 
years ago. It strikingly resembles the profile of 
the Armenians still living in the Hittite country, 
as shown in the modern portrait on the right. 
The strongly aquiline and prominent nose of the 
Hittites was also characteristic of the neighboring 
Semites along the eastern end of the Mediter- 
ranean, including the Canaanites 



54 General History of Europe 

of the Mediterranean at its eastern end. We have seen that this 
region received civilization from Egypt and Western Asia. 
Farther north, however, there were still numerous uncivilized 
peoples. From behind the Balkan Mountains and the Black Sea 
they were migrating toward the Mediterranean. Among these 
uncivilized Northerners were the Greeks, who were beginning to 
overwhelm the eastern Mediterranean. With these Northern in- 
truders we must begin a new epoch in the history of the eastern 
Mediterranean world. 

II. The Coming of the Greeks 

78. Southward Advance of the Indo-European Races in 
Europe. The people whom we call the Greeks were a large group 
of tribes belonging to the Indo-European race. We have already 
followed the migrations of the Indo-European parent people until 
their wanderings finally ranged them all the way from northern 
India to the Atlantic Ocean (§50). While their eastern kindred 
were drifting southward on the east side of the Caspian, the 
Greeks on the west side of the Black Sea were likewise moving 
southward from their pastures in the grasslands along the Danube 
(see map, p. 104). 

Driving their herds before them, with their families in rough 
carts drawn by horses, the rude Greek tribesmen must have come 
in sight of the fair pastures of northern Greece, the snowy sum- 
mit of Olympus, and the blue waters of the ^Egean not long after 
2000 B.C. 

These barbarian Greek herdsmen from the Northern grasslands 
had formerly led a wandering pastoral life like that which we 
have seen also among the Semites in the Southern grasslands. But 
now these Northern nomads were entering upon a settled life 
among the iEgean towns. As the newcomers looked out across the 
waters they could dimly discern the islands where flourishing 
towns were carrying on busy industries in pottery and metal, 
which the ships of Egypt and of the yEgeans were distributing 
far and wide. 



The Coming of the Greeks 55 

79. Greeks take Possession of the iEgean World. Gradually 
their vanguard (called the Achseans) pushed southward into the 
Peloponnesus, and doubtless some of them mingled with the 
dwellers in the villages which were grouped under the walls of 
Tiryns and Mycenae. But our knowledge of the Greek invasions 
is very meager, because the Greeks could not yet write and there- 
fore have left no written documents to tell the story. It is evident, 
however, that a second wave of Greek nomads (called the Do- 
rians) reached the Peloponnesus by 1500 b. c. and gradually sub- 
dued and absorbed their earlier kinsmen (the Achaeans) as well 
as the y£gean townsmen, the original inhabitants of the region. 

The Dorians did not stop at the southern limits of Greece, but, 
learning a little navigation from their iEgean predecessors, soon 
passed over to Crete, where they arrived by 1400 B.C. Cnossus, 
unfortified as it was, must have fallen an easy prey to the 
invading Dorians. They conquered Crete and likewise seized 
the other southern islands of the ^Egean. Between 1300 and 
1000 b. c. the several Greek tribes then established in Greece 
took the remaining islands and the coast of Asia Minor, — 
the Dorians in the south, the Ionians in the middle, and the 
iEolians 'in the north. Here a memorable Greek expedition 
in the twelfth century B.C., after a long siege, captured and 
burned the prosperous city of Troy (§75), a feat which the 
Greeks never after forgot. Thus during the thousand years be- 
tween 2000 and 1000 b.c. the Greeks took possession not only of 
the whole Greek peninsula but likewise of the entire ^Egean world. 

80. Flight of the iEgeans and Fall of their Civilization 
(by 1200 B. c). The northern Mediterranean all along its eastern 
end was thus being seized by invading peoples of Indo-European 
blood coming in from the north. The result was that both the 
^Egeans and their Hittite neighbors in Asia Minor were over- 
whelmed by the advancing Indo-Europeans. The Hittite Empire 
was crushed, and the leading families among the ^Egeans fled by 
sea, chiefly to the south and east. In only one place were 
they able to land in sufficient numbers to settle and form a nation. 
This was on the coast of southern Palestine (see map, p. 44), 



56 General History of Europe 

where a tribe of Cretans called Philistines founded a nation 
which proved very dangerous to the Hebrews. Palestine is still 
called after the Philistines, of which the word "Palestine" is a 
later form. By 1200 B.C., therefore, the splendid ^Egean towns 
and their wonderful civilization had been completely destroyed 
by the incoming Greek barbarians. 

The iEgean civilization, the earliest that Europe had gained, 
thus almost disappeared. But many of the iEgeans had not fled. 
Remaining in their old homes, they feebly carried on the old 
iEgean industries, and these formed part of the foundation on 
which the barbarian Greeks were destined to build up the highest 
civilization of the ancient world. These ^Egeans mingled with 
their Greek conquerors and produced a mixed race, the people 
known to us as the Greeks of history. Although some of the 
yEgeans survived, they lost their language ; Greek, the language 
of the conquerors, became the speech of this mixed race. 

81. Origin of Greek Kingship and of the Greek City-State. 
For a long time the Greek tribes remained a barbarous people 
continuing to tend their flocks and herds as of yore. But grad- 
ually each tribe settled down, gave up its nomad life, and began 
farming, although for hundreds of years their cattle continued 
to form their chief source of wealth. Villages were built, and the 
former nomad leaders were succeeded by "kings," who ruled 
over the tribes. 

In course of time a group of villages would grow together and 
merge at last into a city. It is important to note this, for the 
city became the only nation which the Greeks ever had. Each 
city-state was a nation ; each had its own laws, its own army and 
gods ; and each citizen felt a patriotic duty toward his own city 
and no other. Overlooking the city from the heights in its midst 
was the king's castle, the "citadel" or "acropolis." 

There were soon hundreds of such Greek city-states. Indeed 
the entire ^gean world came to be made up of such tiny nations. 
It was while the Greeks were thus living in these little city- 
kingdoms that Greek civilization arose, especially during the 
period from n 00 to 750 B.C. 



The Coming of the Greeks 57 

III. Beginnings of Higher Culture among the Greeks 

82. Original Barbarism of the Greeks. The Greeks had 
originally invaded the iEgean world as barbarian shepherds and 
warriors, and it required a long time for them to get over their 
old rude and ignorant mode of life. For a long time they learned 
little about building or manufacture or art and were not even able 
to write. Since the Greeks could make scarcely anything for them- 
selves, they were tempted to buy the various articles which the 
Phoenician merchants brought to their shores. There was much to 
attract the Greeks in these cargoes, which were made up of gor- 
geous clothing ; finely decorated tableware of porcelain, bronze, 
and silver; toilet articles, ivory combs, and glass and alabaster 
perfume flasks, along with all sorts of jewelry. 

83. The Phoenicians. The Phoenicians had succeeded the Egyp- 
tians and ^Egeans as the chief merchants of the Mediterranean 
about the year iooo B.C. and held their supremacy for several 
centuries. They pushed westward beyond the ^Egean and were 
the discoverers of the western Mediterranean. Their colony of 
Carthage in north Africa (see map, p. 122) became the most im- 
portant commercial state in the western Mediterranean, and they 
even planted settlements as far away as the Atlantic coast of 
Spain. Thus the Phoenicians did much to spread the art and 
industries of the East throughout the Mediterranean. 

84. Phoenicians carry the First Alphabet to Europe. But the 
Phoenicians brought to the Greeks a crowning gift of far more 
value than manufactured goods. Long before 1000 b. c. the Phoe- 
nician merchants had given up the inconvenient clay tablet of 
Babylonia, used all along the Fertile Crescent, and were writing 
on imported Egyptian papyrus. They or their Semitic neighbors 
likewise invented a system of twenty-two signs for writing their 
own language. These signs were alphabetic letters, the first 
system containing no word-signs or syllable-signs. The Greeks 
soon became familiar with the Phoenician tradesman's sheets of 
pale-yellow paper, bearing his bills and receipts, and at last they 
began to write Greek words by using the Phoenician letters. Thus 



5« 



General History of Europe 



an alphabet appeared in 
Europe for the first 
time. By 700 B.C. the 
Greek potters had be- 
gun to write their names 
on the jars which they 
painted, and writing 
shortly afterward be- 
came common among 
Greeks of all classes. 
From the alphabet which 
the Phoenicians brought 
to the Greeks all the al- 
phabets of the civilized 
world have been derived, 
including our own. 

Along with the alpha- 
bet the equipment for 
using it — that is, pen, 
ink, and paper — for 
' the first time came into 
Europe. The Greeks 
received all their paper 
from Egypt through the 
Phoenicians ; hence the 
word "paper," derived 
from papyrus. The 
Greeks also called papy- 
rus byblos, after the 
Phoenician city of Byb- 
los, from which they 
received it. The Greek 
word for books is biblia, 
and hence our word "Bible." Thus the English word "Bible," 
originally the name of a Phoenician city, reminds us of the way 
in which books and paper were first introduced into Europe. 



I 


11 


III 


IV 


v 


z 

< 

u 

z 
B 

X 

Ph 


w ■£ 

H .» 

r£ T3 

< s 


° 1 .£• 

H "g - 


z 

H 
< 


X 
If) 


z 

w 


K 


A 


A 


A 


A 


3 


s a 


& 


B 


B 


7 


1 


r 


CG 


C.G 


A 


A 


A 


D 


D 


3 


4 


* 


E 


E 


r 


1 


Y 


FV 


F.V.U 


3= 


1 


1 


... 


Z 


# 


B 


B 


H 


E.H 


® 


® 


® 


... 


TH.PH 


=i 


J 


5 


I 


I 


1 


H 


l< 




K.KH 


6 


v/-M 


U A 


L 


L 


y 


w, 


r 


M 


M 


1 


VI 


H 


N 


N 


* 


5 


E 


X 


X 

















1 


T 


p 


P 


p 


i*- 


y 


M 




s 


<? 


<P 


9 


Q 


Q 


1 


1 


P 


R 


R 


w 


2 


S 


S 


S 


Y 


T 


T 


T 


T 



Table showing how the Phoenician 

Letters passed through Greek and 

Latin Forms to reach their Present 

English Forms 



The Coming of the Greeks 



59 



85. The Hero Songs of the Greeks. The Greeks were destined 
to produce many wonderful poems and plays which have been 
the delight of mankind ever since their day. Long before they 
learned to write there were bards who sang of the mighty deeds 
of the Greek warriors. These singers began to flourish perhaps 
a thousand years before 
the Christian Era, espe- 
cially in the Greek settle- 
ments on the eastern 
shores of the ^Egean Sea. 

Here arose a class of 
professional bards who 
graced the feasts of king 
and noble with poetic tales 
of battle and adventure 
recited to the music of the 
harp. Rolling on in stately 
measures these heroic songs 
resounded through many 
a royal hall — the oldest 
literature born in Europe. 
After the separate songs 
had greatly increased in 
number they were finally 
woven together by the 
bards into a connected 
whole called an epic — a great series clustering especially about 
the traditions of the Greek expedition against Troy. These epics 
were a growth of several centuries, the work of generations of 
singers, some of whom were still living even after 700 B.C., when 
they were first written down. 

86. Homer. Among these ancient singers there seems to have 
been one of great fame whose name was Homer (see Ancient 
Times, Fig. 161). His reputation was such that he was supposed 
to have been the author of two great collections of poems: the 
Iliad, the story of the Greek expedition against Troy; and the 




An Athenian Painted Vase of the 
Early Sixth Century b.c. 

This magnificent work (over thirty inches 
high) was found in an Etruscan tomb in 
Italy (see map, p. 122), whither it had been 
exported by the Athenian makers in the 
days of Solon 




A B 

Early Greek Statue and Egyptian Portrait Statue by which it 

was influenced 

The Egyptian portrait (B) is over two thousand years older than the Greek 
figure (A). The noble (B), one of those whose estate we visited on the 
Nile, stands in the customary posture of such figures in Egyptian art, with 
the arms hanging down and the left foot thrust forward. The Greek figure 
(.4) stands in the same posture, with the left foot thrust forward. Both look 
straight ahead, as was customary in undeveloped art. The Greek figure 
shows clearly the influence of Egyptian sculpture 



The Coming of the Greeks 



61 



Odyssey, or the tale of the wanderings of the hero Odysseus on his 
return from Troy. These are the only two series of ancient 
Greek tales that have entirely survived ; even the ancient world 
had its doubts about Homer's authorship of the Odyssey. 

87. The Greek Gods. In the Homeric songs and in the tales 
about the gods, which we call myths, the Greeks heard how the 
gods dwelt among the clouds on the sum- 
mit of Mount Olympus. There in his 
cloud palace Zeus, the Sky-god, with the 
lightning in his hand, ruled the gods like 
an earthly king. Apollo, the Sun-god, 
whose beams were golden arrows, was the 
deadly archer of the gods. But he also 
shielded the flocks of the shepherds and 
the fields of the plowman, and he was a 
wondrous musician. Above all, he knew 
the future ordained by Zeus, and when 
properly consulted at his famous shrine or 
oracle at Delphi he could tell anxious in- 
quirers what the future had in store for 
them. 

The Greeks loved to think of Athena, 
the warrior goddess, standing with shining 
weapons, protecting the Greek cities. But 
she held out her guiding hand over them 

also in times of peace, as the potters shaped their jars, the smiths 
wrought their metal, or the women wove their wool. These three 
then, Zeus, Apollo, and Athena, became the leading divinities of 
the Greek world. 

There was, moreover, a group of great gods, each controlling 
some special realm. In a brazen palace deep under the waters 
Poseidon ruled the sea. The ancient Earth Mother, whom they 
called Demeter, brought forth the produce of the soil. At the 
same time they looked also to another earth god, Dionysus, for the 
fruit of the grapevine, and they rejoiced in the wine which he 
gave them. Hermes was the messenger of the gods, with winged 




Garment worn by 

the Phoenicians and 

later adopted by the 

Greeks 



64 General History of Europe 

bought slaves, if he could afford it, and trained them to carry on 
the manufacturing. The slaves were commonly the inhabitants 
of towns that had been conquered in the wars that went on con- 
stantly. The former little shops in this way grew into factories 
with a score of hands. Henceforth slave labor became and con- 
tinued an important element in Greek life. 

In Athens, especially, the factories grew to a size hitherto un- 
known in the Greek world and filled a large district of the city. 
Beautiful vases were made, which were often placed in the tombs 
of the dead. They are found by modern excavators in places as 
far from each other as the interior of Asia Minor, the Nile delta, 
and central Italy. 

Ships had to be made larger and, in addition to oars, sails — 
invented long before by the Egyptians — were used. The new 
vessels were so heavy that they could no longer be drawn up on 
the shore, so that harbors had to be built for them. 

The protection of these merchant ships demanded more effective 
warships, and the distinction gradually arose between a "man-of- 
war," or battleship, and a "merchantman." Warships must be 
independent of the wind, and hence they were still driven by oars. 
The oarsmen were now arranged in three rows, and the power 
of an old "fifty-oar" was thus multiplied by three without essen- 
tially increasing the ship's size. Battleships having the oars in 
three rows were called "triremes." These improvements were 
widely used by 500 b.c. 

93. Adoption of Coinage by the Greeks (Early Seventh 
Century B.C.). Meantime Greek business life had entered upon 
a new epoch, due to the introduction of coined money. Not long 
after 700 b.c. the kings of Lydia in Asia Minor, following oriental 
custom, cut up silver into lumps of a fixed weight. These they 
began to stamp with some symbol of the king or State, to show 
that the State guaranteed their value. These pieces formed the 
earliest-known coins (see accompanying illustration). 

This great convenience was quickly adopted by the Greeks. 
The Athenians began to use as their commonest coin a bit of 
silver weighing the hundredth part of a Babylonian mina (our 



The Coming of the Greeks 



65 



pound). The drachma, as it was called, was worth from eighteen 
to twenty cents. It still survives in large sections of Europe as the 
French franc. The purchasing power of a drachma was very 
much greater in ancient times than in our day. For example, a 




Specimens illustrating the Beginning of Coinage 

1, both sides of a Lydian coin (about 550 B.C.) ; 2, both sides of a coin of 
the Greek island of Chios (500 B.C.), showing how the Greeks followed the 
Lydian model; 3 y both sides of a Carian coin (650-550 B.C.), an example 
of the square stamp ; 4, both sides of a four-drachma piece of Athens, 
(sixth century B.C.), bearing head of the goddess Athena and an owl with 
olive branch (square stamp). The inscription contains the first three letters 
of "Athens." These coins are all rough lumps of silver (such as were long 
before used in the Orient, § 39), flattened by the pressure of the stamp 



sheep cost one drachma, an ox five drachma, and a landowner with 
an income of five hundred drachmas ($100) a year was con- 
sidered a wealthy man. 

94. Rise of a Capitalistic Class. Greek wealth had formerly 
consisted of lands and flocks, but now men began to accumulate 
capital in money. Loans were made, and the custom of lending 
money at interest came in from the Orient. The usual rate was 
18 per cent yearly. Men who could never have hoped to get ahead 
as farmers were now growing rich. There arose a prosperous 
industrial and commercial middle class, which demanded a voice 
in the government. 



66 General History of Europe 

95. The Greeks never united into a Single Nation. Tne Greek 
city-states never united into a single great and powerful nation. 
This was in part because the country was so cut up by deep 
bays and divided by mountain ranges that the various towns were 
somewhat separated from one another ; partly because each of the 
Greek towns had its own peculiar habits, its dialect, and its own 
local gods. But in some cases a number of formerly small inde- 
pendent city-states were brought together and formed such large 
and important city-states as Athens, Sparta, Argos, and Thebes. In 
this way the people of a considerable territory regarded themselves 
as Athenians or Spartans. 

96. The Tyrants. The kings began to disappear about 750 B.C., 
and for a time the government in most Greek cities was under 
the control of a group of nobles. When the nobles fell out 
with one another, "tyrants," as the Greeks called them, arose. 
These were not necessarily tyrants in our sense of the word, but 
leaders, or "bosses," who managed to get the support of the 
people and so become kings in all but name. They often helped 
the people to secure their rights and did much to beautify the 
cities over which they ruled. 

Civilization flourished under the tyrants. This is illustrated by 
the fact that in the early sixth century b.c. Thales of Miletus was 
the first Greek to predict an eclipse of the sun and to conclude 
that the planets and stars were governed by natural laws, and 
not rjy the whims of the gods. Nevertheless there was a natural 
prejudice against the tyrants, and it was generally regarded as a 
heroic act to kill one if he became unpopular. 

97. Influences leading toward Greek Unity. We have already 
noticed the tendencies which kept the Greek states apart. There 
were, on the other hand, influences which tended to make them feel 
that they really formed in a way a single people. Among such in- 
fluences were the athletic contests. These finally came to be held 
at stated seasons in honor of the gods. As early as 776 b.c. 
such contests were celebrated as public festivals at Olympia. 1 

1 These Olympic games have been revived in modern times as an international 
project. 



The Coming of the Greeks 67 

It became the custom to hold the Olympic games every four 
years, and they finally aroused the interest and participation of 

all Greece. 

Religion also became a strong influence toward unity, because 
there were some gods at whose temples all the Greeks worshiped. 
The different city-states therefore organized several religious coun- 
cils, made up of representatives from the various Greek cities 
concerned. These councils were perhaps the nearest approach to » 
representative government ever devised in the ancient world. 
The most notable of them were the council for the control of the 
Olympic games, another for the famous sanctuary of Apollo at 
Delphi (§87), and the council for the great annual feast of 
Apollo in the island of Delos. 

The representatives of the cities who attended these councils 
spoke the various Greek dialects at their meetings. They could 
understand each other, however, and their common language 
helped to bind together the people of the many different Greek 
cities. A sentiment of unity also arose under the influence of the 
Homeric songs (§§ 86-87), with which every Greek was familiar, — 
a common inheritance depicting all the Greeks united against the 
Asiatic city of Troy. 

98. Barbarians and Hellenes. Bound together by these com- 
mon interests the Greeks gained a feeling of race unity, which set 
them apart from other races. They called all men not of Greek 
blood "barbarians," but this was not originally a term of re- 
proach for the non-Greeks. They gradually came to call them- 
selves "Hellenes" and found pleasure in the belief that they had 
all descended from a common ancestor called Hellen. Connected 
with this word is also the name "Hellas," often applied to Greece. 
But it should be clearly understood that this new designation did 
not represent a Greek nation or state, but only the group of 
Greek-speaking peoples or states, often at war with one another. 
The most fatal defect in Greek character was the inability of 
the. various states to forget their local differences and jealousies 
and to unite in a common federation or great nation including 
all Greeks. 



68 General History of Europe 

V. Reforms of Solon and Clisthenes 

99. Development of Athens ; Solon. Of the Greek cities 
Athens was to become by far the most important and was to make 
a name for itself which should never be forgotten. Its first great 
citizen was Solon, who was in 594 B.C. given full power to intro- 
duce needed reforms. Although a noble himself, he reduced the 

(Oppressive power of his fellow nobles, relieved the peasants of 
the heavy mortgages that lay on their lands, and set a limit to the 
amount of land a noble might hold. He made it possible for any- 
one, however poor, to have his lawsuit tried before a jury of citi- 
zens selected by lot. Only the nobles were permitted to hold the 
higher offices, but the peasants could hold the lower ones, and all 
free citizens were assured a vote in the assembly of the people. 
Solon is the first Greek statesman about whom we have any 
reliable information. 

100. Clisthenes. In spite of Solon's reforms a tyrant, Pisis- 
tratus, gained control of Athens for a time. Although he ruled 
wisely and with success, the prejudice of the people against ty- 
rants was so great that when he died, in 528 B.C., one of his sons 
was killed and the other forced to flee. Clisthenes, a second Solon, 
broke up the old class divisions and established election districts 
in which the nobles were always bound to be in the minority. 
He also arranged that once a year the people might declare any 
prominent citizen dangerous and banish him for ten years. The 
names were written on bits of pottery, instead of paper ballots 
such as we use today. The name of this pottery ballot was 
ostracon, and to ostracize a man meant originally to banish him. 
These measures made it difficult for anyone to succeed in making 
himself tyrant. They also tended to make Athens a democracy ; 
that is, a government in which the power lies in the hands of 
the people at large. 

101. Expansion of Sparta. Meantime the future rival of 
Athens, Sparta, also had greatly increased in power. Long before 
500 b.c. the Spartans had forced the neighboring states into a 
combination, called the "Spartan League," which included nearly 



The Coming of the Greeks 69 

the whole of the Peloponnese. As the leader of this league Sparta 
was the most powerful state in Greece. It had no industries, and 
it therefore did not possess the prosperous commercial class which 
had elsewhere done so much to overthrow the nobles and bring 
about the rise of the tyrants. Sparta was also opposed to the 
rule of the people and looked with a jealous eye on the rising 
democracy of Athens. 

QUESTIONS 

I. How did Europe first receive metal ? Where and how did higher 
forms of civilization begin in Europe? Describe the physical aspects 
of the ^gean world. Why did civilization develop in Crete earlier 
than in Europe ? Describe the art and industries of Crete. Had Euro- 
peans ever had sailing ships before ? What were the earliest influences 
of Cretan civilization on the mainland? What contribution did the 
Hittites make to the advancement of civilization ? 

II. To what race do the Greeks belong ? Describe the Greek tribes- 
men when they first appeared in northern Greece. Describe the in- 
vasion of the /^Egean world by the Greeks. W T hat became of ^gean 
civilization? Who were the Philistines? Describe the origin of. the 
Greek city-states. 

III. Describe the life of the early Greeks. How did they gradually 
improve their ways of living ? With what civilizing influences did they 
come in contact when they settled in the ^Egean? Tell what you 
know of the Phoenicians. How was the Phoenician alphabet adopted by 
the Greeks ? Describe the songs of adventure so popular with the 
Greeks. Who was their most famous bard? What celebrated poems 
is he supposed to have written? Describe the gods of the Greeks. 
Why are they sometimes called anthropomorphic ? 

IV. Where did the Greeks found colonies? Tell something of the 
development of trade and business among the Greeks. When and 
where was coined money first used by them? Why did the Greeks 
fail to unite into a nation? Were there any national bonds among 
them? 

V. Describe the reforms of Solon; of Clisthenes. Why were the 
sons of Pisistratus not permitted to rule? What was the Spartan 
League? 



CHAPTER V 

THE REPULSE OF PERSIA AND THE RISE OF THE 
ATHENIAN EMPIRE 

I. The Repulse of the Persians 

102. The Persian Advance to the JEgean (546 B.C.). In 
order to understand the story of Greece we must now recall that 
in the year 546 B.C. Cyrus the Persian marched westward to the 
^gean (§ 54). The vast Persian Empire which he founded thus 
became a close neighbor of the Greeks directly on their east in 
Asia Minor. In the midst of their remarkable progress in civili- 
zation the Ionian Greek cities of Asia Minor suddenly lost their 
liberty and actually became subjects of Persia. 

As we have already learned, the Persians possessed a high de- 
gree of culture and an enlightened government, but Persian su- 
premacy in Greece would nevertheless have seriously checked the 
advance of the Greeks in civilization. There seemed little pros- 
pect that the tiny Greek states, even if they united, could success- 
fully resist the vast oriental empire, controlling as it did all the 
countries of the ancient East, which we have been studying. 
Nevertheless the Ionian cities revolted against their Persian lords. 

103. First Persian Invasion of Europe. During the struggle 
with Persia which followed this revolt the Athenians sent twenty 
ships to aid their Ionian kindred. This act brought a Persian 
army of revenge, under Darius, into Europe. The long march 
of the Persians across the Hellespont and through Thrace cost 
them many men, and the fleet which accompanied the Persian 
advance was wrecked in trying to round the high promontory of 
Mount Athos (492 B.C.). This advance into Greece was there- 
fore abandoned for a plan of invasion by water across the ^Egean. 

70 



The Repulse of Persia 71 

104. Second Persian Invasion. In the early summer of 
490 B.C. a considerable fleet of transports and warships bearing 
the Persian host sailed across the ^Egean and entered the straits 
between Eubcea and Attica. The Persians landed on the shores 
of Attica, in the Bay of Marathon (see map, p. 50), intending to 
march on Athens. 

All was excitement and confusion among the Greek states. The 
defeat of the revolting Ionian cities had made- a deep impression 
throughout Greece. Now this Persian foe was camping behind the 
hills only a few miles northeast of Athens. 

105. Miltiades and the Battle of Marathon (490 B.C.). The 
Persian forces probably numbered about twenty thousand men, 
but at the utmost the Athenians could not put more than half 
this number into the field. Fortunately for them, there was 
among their generals a skilled commander named Miltiades. 
As the citizen-soldiers of Attica flocked to the city at the call 
to arms, Miltiades was able to induce the leaders not to await 
the assault of the Persians at Athens but to march across the 
peninsula and block the Persian advance among the hills over- 
looking the eastern coast and commanding the road to the city. 

Unable to entice the Greeks from the advantageous position 
they had chosen at Marathon, the Persians at length attempted 
to force their way along the road toward Athens. The Athenians 
bravely faced the storm of Persian arrows and managed to attack 
the enemy in such a manner that the Asiatic army crumbled in 
confusion. The Persian bows proved less effective than the Greek 
spears. The invaders were routed and fled to their ships, leaving 
over six thousand dead upon the field, while the Athenians lost 
less than two hundred men. When the Persian commander sailed 
around the Attic peninsula and appeared with his fleet before 
the port of Athens, he found it unwise to attempt a landing, for 
the victorious Athenian army was already encamped beside the 

city. 

106. Rise of Themistocles. Among the men who stood in the 
Athenian ranks at Marathon was Themistocles, the ablest states- 
man in Greece. He was convinced of the necessity of building up 



7 2 



General History of Ewope 



a strong navy, and had therefore long been trying to show the 
Athenians that the only way in which Athens could hope to meet 
the assault of Persia was by making herself undisputed mistress 
of the sea. He found it hard to convince his fellow citizens, but 
the danger of a new Persian attack led them to change their minds. 







phie-Schriejder* 



Mound raised as a Monument to the Fallen Greeks at Marathon 

The mound is nearly fifty feet high. Excavations undertaken in 1890 

disclosed beneath it the bodies of the one hundred and ninety-two Athenian 

citizens who fell in the battle 



107. Xerxes' Attack; Creation of an Athenian Navy. 
Darius the Great, whose remarkable reign we have studied 
(§ 55)? died without having avenged the defeat of his army at 
Marathon. His son and successor, Xerxes, therefore took up the 
unfinished task. The Greeks made ready to meet the new Persian 
assault. They soon learned that Xerxes' commanders were making 
a canal behind the promontory of Athos, to secure a short cut and 
thus to avoid all risk of such a wreck as had overtaken their former 
fleet in rounding this dangerous point. When the news of this 
operation reached Athens, Themistocles was at last able to induce 
the Athenian Assembly to build a great fleet of about a hundred 



The Repulse of Persia 73 

and eighty triremes. The Greeks were then ready for the first 
time to oppose the Persian advance by both sea and land. 

The design of Themistocles was to meet the Persian fleet first 
and fight a decisive naval battle as soon as possible. If victorious, 
the Greek fleet commanding the iEgean would then be able to sail 
up the eastern coast of Greece and threaten the communications 
and supplies of the Persian army. An effort to unite all the 
Greek states against the Persian invasion was not successful. 
Indeed, Themistocles was able to induce the Spartans to join with 
Athens only on condition that Sparta be given command of the 
allied Greek fleets. 

108. Battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium (48OB.C.). In 
the summer of 480 B.C. the Asiatic army was approaching the 
pass of Thermopylae, just opposite the westernmost point of the 
island of Eubcea (see map, p. 50). Their fleet moved with them. 
It is supposed that the Asiatic host numbered over two hundred 
thousand men, with as many more camp followers, while the enor- 
mous fleet contained about a thousand vessels, of which two thirds 
were warships. Of the latter the Persians lost a hundred or two 
in a storm, leaving about five hundred warships available for 
action. The Spartan king Leonidas led some five thousand men to 
check the Persians at the pass of Thermopylae while the Greek fleet 
of less than three hundred triremes was endeavoring to strike the 
Persian navy at Artemisium, on the northern coast of Eubcea. This 
brought the land and sea forces of both contestants face to face. 

After several days' delay the Persians advanced to attack the 
Greeks on both land and sea. All day the dauntless Leonidas held 
the pass of Thermopylae against the Persian host. Meantime the 
Persians were executing two flank movements by land and by sea. 
The flank movement by sea failed, but the flanking of the pass 
was successful. Taken in front and rear, the heroic Leonidas died 
fighting at the head of his small force, which the Persian host 
completely annihilated. The death of Leonidas stirred all Greece. 
With the defeat of the Greek land forces and the advance of the 
Persian army, the Greek fleet, seriously damaged, was obliged 
to withdraw to the south. It took up its position in the Bay of 



74 General History of Europe 

Salamis (see map, p. 52), while the main army of the Spartans 
and their allies was drawn up on the Isthmus of Corinth, the 
only point at which the Greek land forces could hope to make 
another stand. 

109. Persians invade Attica and burn Athens. As the Persian 
army moved southward from Thermopylae the undaunted Themis- 
tocles gathered together the Athenian population and carried them 
in transports to the little islands of Salamis and ^gina and the 
shores of Argolis. The courage of many of the Greeks at Salamis 
was shaken as they looked northward, where the far-stretching 
Persian host darkened the coast road, while to the south they 
could see the Asiatic fleet drawn up off the port of Athens. High 
over the Attic hills the flames of the burning Acropolis showed 
red against the somber masses of smoke that told them that the 
homes of the Athenians lay in ashes. 

110. Battle of Salamis (480 B.C.). On the heights overlook- 
ing the Bay of Salamis, Xerxes, seated on his throne, in the midst 
of his brilliant oriental court, watched the battle. The Persian 
ships found themselves at a great disadvantage in attempting to 
reach the Greek vessels, which were crowded in the narrow waters 
between the island of Salamis and the mainland. The huge Asiatic 
fleet soon fell into confusion before the Greek attack. The com- 
bat lasted the entire day, and when darkness settled on the Bay 
of Salamis the Persian fleet had been almost annihilated. The 
Athenians were now masters of the sea. By the creation of its 
powerful fleet Athens had saved Greece, and Themistocles had 
shown himself the greatest of Greek statesmen. 

111. Retreat of Xerxes and Expulsion of the Persians. 
Xerxes was now troubled lest he should be cut off from Asia by 
the victorious Greek fleet. With many losses from disease and 
with insufficient supplies he retreated to the Hellespont and with- 
drew into Asia, leaving his able general Mardonius with an army 
of perhaps fifty thousand men to winter in Thessaly. 

But the following spring the Greeks were able to defeat Mar- 
donius at Plataea and expel the remnants of Xerxes' vast army 
from Greece. 



The Repulse of Persia 75 

Not only European Greece but Ionia too was saved from 
Asiatic despotism. For the Greek triremes crossed over to Asia 
Minor and drove out or destroyed the remnants of the Persian 
fleet. The Athenians now seized the Hellespont and held the 
crossing from Asia into Europe. Thus the grandsons of those 
Greeks who had seen Persia advance to the iEgean (§ 54) 
blocked her further progress in the West and thrust her back 
from Europe. Indeed, no Persian army ever set foot in European 
Greece again. 

II. The Rise of the Athenian Empire 

112. Rivalry of Athens and Sparta. As the Athenians re- 
turned to look out over the ashes of what was once Athens, amid 
which rose the smoke-blackened heights of the naked Acropolis, 
they began to realize the greatness of their deliverance and the 
magnitude of their victory. With the not too ready help of 
Sparta they had crushed the ancient power of Asia. They felt 
themselves masters of the world. The past seemed narrow and 
limited. A new and greater Athens dawned upon their vision. 

This was all very different from the feeling of the stolid Spar- 
tans. Sparta was little more than a large military club or camp. 
Living in a group of straggling villages, which could hardly be 
called a city, greatly attached to their own old customs, proud of 
their barbarous habits, still using only iron money, and refusing 
to build a wall around their city, the old-fashioned Spartans 
looked with misgivings upon the larger world which was opening 
to Greek life. 

Greece therefore fell into two camps as it were: Sparta, the 
home of tradition and privileges granted only to the military 
class; Athens, the champion of progress and the leadership of 
the people. Accordingly the brief union of Athens and Sparta 
against the Persians was followed by a fatal rivalry between these 
two leading states, which continued for another century and 
finally cost the Greeks the leadership of the ancient world. 

113. The Delian League. Immediately after the repulse of the 
Persians the Athenians formed a league with the Greek cities of 



76 



General History of Europe 



Ionia and the islands. The members were to contribute money 
or ships, and Athens was to have command of the fleet, which 
could be used in case of a new attack by the Persian hosts. The 
treasury, in charge of Athens, was on the island of Delos, and 
hence the name of the new union was the Delian League. It 
seemed to the suspicious and jealous Sparta that this was a step 
toward a powerful Athenian empire. 

114. Athens a Democracy. A council of five hundred paid 
members had grown up in Athens and played a great part in the 




An Ancient Greek Ballot 

After the repulse of the Persians Themistocles became unpopular, and the 
ungrateful Athenians voted him down and sent him into exile. The cut 
shows the name of Themistocles scratched on a fragment of a pottery jar 
(ostracon, § ioo) by some citizen of the six thousand who secured the 
ostracism of Themistocles in 472 b.c, or it may have served a similar 
purpose in an earlier but unsuccessful attempt to ostracize him 

government. It was created by the poorer classes in their conflict 
with the nobles in order to form a government by the people which 
we call democracy. To enable the poorest citizens to serve on the 
juries established by Solon, a law was passed paying jurors for 
their services. The citizen courts and the Assembly finally gained 
the power to enact all the new laws. Moreover, all the higher 
offices in the state were, with the exception of the general in chief 
(who was elected), to be chosen by lot. This gave every citizen 
a chance to be an officeholder. The system was certainly demo- 
cratic, but it did not work very smoothly. There was constant 
friction between the common people and the nobles, and some- 
times fighting. The people were often untrue to their best leaders, 
and they even ostracized Themistocles, the ablest statesman in 




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CHAPTER VI 

ATHENS IN THE AGE OF PERICLES 

I. Houses, Education, and Science 

116. The New Athens: Athenian Houses. The hasty re- 
building of Athens after the Persians had burned it did not pro- 
duce any noticeable changes in the houses, nor were there any 
of great size or beauty. The one-story front of even a wealthy 
man's house was simply a blank wall, usually of sun-dried brick. 
The door, commonly the only opening in the windowless front, 
led into a court open to the sky and surrounded by a porch 
with columns adopted from Egypt. Here in the mild climate 
of Greece the family could spend much of their time as in a 
sitting room. From the court a number of doors opened into 
a living room, sleeping rooms, dining rooms, storerooms, and a 
tiny kitchen. 

The house lacked all conveniences. There was no chimney, 
and the smoke from the kitchen fire, though intended to drift 
up through a hole in the roof, often choked the room or floated 
out of the door. In winter gusty drafts filled the house, for many 
entrances were without doors. Glass windowpanes were still un- 
known. The only stove was a pan of burning charcoal. Lacking 
windows, the ground-floor rooms depended for light entirely on 
the doors opening on the court. At night the dim light of an 
olive-oil lamp was all that was available. There was no plumbing 
or piping of any kind in the house, no drainage, and consequently 
no sanitary arrangements. The water supply was brought in jars 
by slaves from the nearest well or spring. The simplicity and 
bareness of the house itself were in noticeable contrast with the 
beautiful furniture and pottery which the Greek craftsmen were 
now producing. 

78 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 79 

The city was about a mile wide and somewhat more in length. The 
streets were merely lanes or alleys, narrow and crooked, winding 
between the bare mud-brick walls of the low houses. There was 
neither pavement nor sidewalk, and a stroll through the town 
after a rain meant wading through the mud. All the household 
rubbish and garbage were thrown directly into the street, and 
there was no system of street-cleaning or of sewerage. 

117. Costume. The gorgeous oriental raiment of earlier days 
had now largely disappeared in Greece, as bright colors for 
men did among us in the days of our great-great-grandfathers. 
The women were less inclined to give up the old finery ; unhappily 
they had little to think about but clothes and housekeeping. For 
Greek citizens still kept their wives in the background ; they were 
mere housekeepers, and it was not deemed necessary to provide 
schools for the girls. 

118. Schools. When a boy was old enough he was sent to 
school in charge of an old slave called a pedagogue (a Greek word 
meaning "leader of a child"). There were no schools maintained 
by the State. School was conducted in his own house by some 
poor citizen, who was much looked down upon. He received 
his pay from the parents. Besides studying music and learning 
to read and write, the pupil memorized many passages from the 
old poets, and here and there a boy with a good memory could 
repeat the entire Iliad and Odyssey. On the other hand, there was 
no instruction in mathematics, geography, or natural science. 

119. Athletics. If the wealth and station of his family per- 
mitted, the Athenian youth spent much of his time on the new 
athletic fields. On the north of Athens was the field known as 
the Academy. There was a similar athletic ground, called the 
Lyceum, on the east of the city. The later custom of holding 
courses of lectures in these places resulted in giving the words 
"academy" and "lyceum" the associations they now possess for 
us. The chief events in the famous athletic contests at Olympia 
(§97) were boxing, wrestling, running, jumping, casting the 
javelin, and throwing the disk. To these, other contests were 
afterward added, especially chariot and horseback races. 



8o 



General History of Europe 



120. Higher Education offered by the Sophists. On the other 
hand, there were serious-minded young men who spent their time 
on other things. Many a bright youth who had finished his 
music, reading, and writing at the old-fashioned private school 
annoyed his father by insisting that such schooling was not 
enough and by demanding money to pay for a course of lectures 





Greek Boy pulling out a Thorn (A) and a Later Caricature of 

the Thorn Puller (B) 

The graceful figure of the slender boy so seriously striving to remove the 
thorn was probably wrought not long after the Persian wars. It was very 
popular in antiquity, as it has also been in modern times. The comical 
caricature (B) in clay (terra cotta), though it has lost one foot, is a de- 
lightful example of Greek humor expressed in parody 

delivered by more modern private teachers called Sophists, a 
class of new and clever lecturers who wandered from city to city. 
In the lectures of the. Sophists a higher education was for the 
first time open to young men. In the first place, the Sophists 
taught rhetoric and oratory with great success ; fathers who had 
no gift of speech had the pleasure of seeing their sons practiced 
public speakers. It was through the teaching of the Sophists also 
that the first successful writing of Greek prose began. In addition 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 81 

they taught mathematics and astronomy, and the young men of 
Athens for the first time began to learn a little natural science. 

When a father of that day found in the hands of his son a book 
by one of the great Sophists which began with a statement ques- 
tioning the existence of the gods, the new teachings seemed im- 
pious. The old-fashioned citizen could at least vote for the 
banishment of such impious teachers and burning of their books. 

121. Progress in Science and Medicine. Science had begun to 
be cultivated in the Ionian cities before the Persian wars (§96). 
In southern Italy a celebrated philosopher, Pythagoras, founded 
a school of philosophy and carried on the study of geometry. 
Among the sciences medicine, perhaps, made the most progress. 
In the first place, the Greek physicians rejected the older belief 
that disease was caused by evil demons and endeavored to find 
the natural causes of the ailment. To do this they sought to 
understand the organs of the body. They discovered that the 
brain was the organ of thought, but the arterial system, the circu- 
lation of the blood, and the nervous system were still entirely 
unknown. The greatest physician of the time was Hippocrates, 
who became the founder of scientific medicine. 

122. Progress in History- Writing ; Herodotus. Just at the 
close of Pericles' life the historian Herodotus, — a great traveler, — 
who had long been engaged on a history of the world, finally 
published his famous work. The story was so told that the 
glorious leadership of Athens would be clear to all Greeks and 
they would see that to her they owed their deliverance from 
Persia. Throughout Greece it created a deep impression, and so 
tremendous was its effect on the Athenians that they voted Herod- 
otus a reward of ten talents — some twelve thousand dollars. 

II. Art and Literature 

123. Phidias and the Parthenon. The Greeks now began to 
produce wonderful painters and architects, and sculptors such as 
the world had never seen. It is they who, with the writers, have 
made Athens famous through the centuries since Pericles began 



82 General History of Europe 

the reconstruction of the Parthenon, the most celebrated building 
in the world. The Parthenon was the temple of the patron god- 
dess Athena (§87) and stood on the Acropolis. It had been 
destroyed by the Persians and was now rebuilt on a scale of 
beauty and magnificence hitherto unknown in the Greek world. 
Phidias, the greatest of the Athenian sculptors, designed the 
famous frieze, a band of carved marble reliefs extending clear 
around the building. This portrayed the people of Athens moving 
in a stately religious procession. The figures of the men and 
horses are of unrivaled beauty and grace. Inside the new temple 
rose the gigantic figure of the goddess Athena, wrought by the 
masterly hand of Phidias in gold and ivory. 

124. The Drama ; jEschylus. In spite of the teachings of the 
Sophists, most of the Athenians still reverently believed in their 
gods, who they thought had raised Athens to the powerful posi- 
tion that she occupied. They listened with admiration and awe 
to the dramas of their first great playwright, ^schylus. He had 
fought against the Persians, and in his tragedy The Persians 
he told his fellow citizens of the mighty purpose of the gods in 
saving Hellas from the Asiatic invaders. 

We can picture a citizen in Pericles' time skirting the base 
of the Acropolis and reaching the theater to find the people 
already crowding the entrance. The play would seem strange 
enough to us, for there is little or no scenery ; and the actors, 
who are always men, wear grotesque masks, a survival of old 
days. The narrative is largely carried on in song by the chorus, 
but this is varied by the dialogue of the actors, and the whole 
is not unlike an opera. 

125. Sophocles. A play of Sophocles is on, and the citizen's 
neighbor in the next seat leans over to tell him how as a lad 
many years ago he stood on the shore of Salamis, whither his 
family had fled, and as they looked down upon the destruction 
of the Persian fleet this same Sophocles, then a boy of sixteen, 
was in the crowd looking on with the rest. How deeply must the 
events of that tragic day have sunk into the boy's soul ! Because, 
like iEschylus, — the first great writer of tragedies, — he too sees 



84 General History of Europe 

the will of the gods in all that happens to men. He exhorts his 
audience to worship Zeus, however dark the destiny which the 
great god lays upon men. For Sophocles is no friend of the 
Sophists, who scoff at the gods. 

126. Euripides. Our citizen is inclined to distrust the new 
sensational plays of Euripides, who lives on the island of Salamis. 
He is a friend and companion of the Sophists, and in matters of 
religion his mind is troubled with doubts. All his plays are filled 
with these doubts regarding the gods. He has raised a great many 
questions which the citizen has never been able to banish from 
his own mind. Sophocles, therefore, suits all the old-fashioned 
folk, and it is very rarely that Euripides, in spite of his great 
ability, has been able to carry off the prize. The citizen feels 
some anxiety as he realizes that his own son and most of the other 
young men of his set are enthusiastic admirers of Euripides. They 
constantly read his plays and talk them over with the Sophists. 

127. Comedy. The great tragedies were given in the morning, 
and in the afternoon the people were ready for less serious enter- 
tainment, such as comedy offered. From the old-time country 
festivals the comedy developed into a stage performance. The 
comedy-writers did not hesitate to introduce into their plays the 
greatest dignitaries of the State. Even Pericles was not spared, 
and great philosophers or serious-minded writers like Socrates and 
Euripides were represented on the stage and made irresistibly 
ridiculous, while the multitudes of Athens vented their delight in 
roars of laughter mingled with shouts and cheers. 

128. Books and Reading. Now at last books had come to 
take an important place in the life of Athens. In our Athenian 
citizen's library were Homer and the works of the old classic 
poets. They were written on long rolls of papyrus as much as a 
hundred and fifty or sixty feet in length. Besides literary works, 
all sorts of books of instruction began to appear. The sculptors 
wrote of their art, and there was a large group of books on medi- 
cine bearing the name of Hippocrates. Textbooks on mathematics 
and rhetoric circulated, and the Athenian housekeeper could even 
find a cookbook at the bookshop. 










The Theater of Athens 

This theater was the center of the growth and development of Greek drama, 
which began as a part of the celebration of the spring feast of Dionysus, god 
of the vine and the fruitfulness of the earth. The temple of the god stood 
here, just at the left. Long before anyone knew of such a thing as a theater, 
the people gathered at this place to watch the celebration of the god's spring 
feast, where they formed a circle about the chorus, which narrated in song 
the stories of the gods. This circle (called the orchestra) was finally marked 
out permanently, seats of wood for the spectators were erected in a semi- 
circle on one side, but the singing and action all took place in the circle on 
the level of the ground. On the side opposite the public was a booth, or 
tent (Greek, skene, "scene"), for the actors, and out of this finally developed 
the stage. Here we see the circle, or orchestra, with the stage cutting off 
the back part of the circle. The seats are of stone and accommodated 
possibly seventeen thousand people. The fine marble seats in the front 
row v/ere reserved for the leading men of Athens. The old wooden seats were 
still in use in the days when ./Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides presented 
their dramas here. From the seats the citizens had a grand view of the sea 
and the island of ^Egina, for orchestra and seats continued roofless, and 
a Greek theater was always open to the sky 



86 General History of Europe 

129. Summary. Under such influences there had grown up at 
Athens a large group of intelligent men. They constantly shared 
in the tasks and problems of city government, and they also had 
the daily opportunity of coming in contact with the greatest works 
of art in literature, drama, painting, architecture, and sculpture. 
Very different from the old Athens of the days before the repulse of 
the Persians, the new Athens had become a wonderful community 
such as the ancient world had never known before. It now re- 
mained to be seen whether the people, in complete control of 
the State, could guide her wisely and maintain her power. 

III. Fall of the Athenian Empire 

130. Unpopularity of Athens. In spite of all her greatness 
Athens was unpopular. Sparta hated her and despised her refine- 
ment. The merchants of Corinth were jealous of her successful 
business. The island cities which had joined her in the Delian 
League (§ 113) wanted to withdraw when peace was arranged 
with Persia, but Athens would not let them and forced them 
to continue to pay tribute to the treasury, which had been trans- 
ferred from Delos to Athens. Her dependencies in the northern 
^Egean revolted and received support from Sparta and Corinth. 

131. Second Peloponnesian War. One war had been waged 
(§ 115), now another began in 431 B.C. Pericles had to crowd all 
the people around Athens into the city and the walls leading down 
to the Piraeus. For season after season the Spartans and other 
enemies of Athens beleaguered the city. The plague, brought in 
from the Orient, broke out several times and carried off perhaps a 
third of the population. Pericles lost control' of the people, was 
accused of misappropriating the public funds, and fined. Later 
he was reelected when matters went from bad to worse, but 
he died of the plague. After ten years of war and devastation a 
peace was arranged, and the belligerents gave back the conquests 
they had made and retained only what they had held before 
the war. 



Cyma 



Frieze (alter- 
nate metopes 
and tri glyphs) 



Channeled 
shaft (with 
section cut 
out to save 
space) 





Architrave 



Capital 

Channeled 
shaft (with 
section cut 
out to save 
space) 

Base 

Stylobate 




D 






The Two Leading Styles of Greek Architecture, the Doric 
(a and b) and the ionic (c and d) . (after luckenbach) 

The little Doric building (B) is. the treasury of the Athenians at Delphi, 
containing their offerings of gratitude to Apollo. On the low base at the 
left side of the building were placed the trophies from the battle of Mara- 
thon. Over them on the walls are carved hymns to Apollo with musical 
notes attached, the oldest musical notation surviving. The beautiful 
Ionic building (D) is a restoration of the temple of Victory on the Athenian 
Acropolis. Contrast its slender columns with the sturdier shafts of the 
Doric style, and it will be seen that the Ionic order is a more delicate and 
graceful style. A and C show details of both styles. See page 88 for ex- 
ample of the third style of architecture — the Corinthian 



88 



General History of Europe 





132. Alcibiades and the Expedition 
to Sicily. Soon the war spirit in Athens 
was again aroused by Alcibiades, a 
brilliant young man and a relative of 
Pericles. He made the fatal suggestion 
that the Athenians send their fleet to 
attack Syracuse in Sicily, a colony of 
Corinth. Alcibiades was one of the gen- 
erals in command of the expedition. 
The people of Athens, however, decided 
to recall him, for he was accused, with 
other young men, of having impiously 
mutilated certain sacred images before 
he sailed. Thereupon Alcibiades de- 
serted to Sparta and gave the enemy the 
benefit of his skill and insight. The 
Spartans sent a force to aid Syracuse. 
The Athenian general managed things 
so badly that Athens had to impoverish 
herself by sending a second fleet. No 
Greek state had ever mustered such 
forces and sent them so far away to 
fight. In 413 B.C. the Syracusans man- 
aged to trap the Athenian fleet in the 
harbor. The troops which landed were 
captured and sold as slaves. This dis- 
aster, together with the ravages of the 
plague, brought Athens to the end of 
her resources. 

133. Distress of Athens. On the ad- 
vice of Alcibiades Sparta now laid per- 

The Greek cities of Asia Minor and of the 
islands turned against her, and, along with Sparta, even received 
the support of the Persian satrap in western Asia Minor. So the 
members of the former Delian League, established to resist Persia, 
were now allied with Persia to fight the founder of the league. 



niiiiiml lD MlH)))))! 

A Corinthian Capital 

The shaft of this column 
has been cut out in the 
drawing between the base 
and the capital to save 
space. Like the capitals of 
Egypt, this one represents 
a plant, the leaves of the 
acanthus, alternating in 
two rows around the cap- 
ital and crowned by vo- 
lutes rising to the four 
corners of a flat block 
upon which the supported 
stone above rests. The 
effect of this capital is 
peculiarly rich and ornate 



manent siege to Athens 



Athens in the Age of Pericles 89 

134. Return of Alcibiades. In spite of his notorious treason 
the Athenians now asked Alcibiades to return and help them. 
Under his guidance they once more got command of the sea. 
But a slight reverse of the fleet when he was not even present led 
the fickle Athenians to desert him, and he fled to a castle on the 
Hellespont which he had in readiness. Here he died in exile 
murdered by a Persian. Soon after the flight of Alcibiades the 
Athenian fleet was captured by the Spartan general Lysander as it 
lay drawn up on the beach in the neighborhood of the Hellespont 
(at iEgospotami). 

135. Fall of the Athenian Empire (404 B.C.). At last, 
twenty-seven years after Pericles had provoked the war with 
Sparta, Athens was exhausted. Not a man slept on the night 
when the terrible news of final ruin reached Athens. It was 
soon confirmed by the appearance of Lysander's fleet blockading 
the Piraeus. The grain ships from the Black Sea could no longer 
reach the port of Athens. Starvation finally forced the stubborn 
democratic leaders to submit, and the city surrendered. The 
Long Walls and the fortifications of the Piraeus were torn down, 
the remnant of the fleet was handed over to Sparta, all foreign 
possessions were given up, and Athens was forced to enter the 
Spartan League. These hard conditions saved the city from the 
complete destruction demanded by Corinth. Thus the century 
which had so gloriously begun for Athens with the repulse of 
Persia, the century which under the leadership of such men as 
Themistocles and Pericles had seen her rise to supremacy in all 
that was best and noblest in Greek life, closed with the annihila- 
tion of the Athenian Empire (404 B.C.). 

QUESTIONS 

I. Describe the houses in Athens in the time of Pericles. What was 
the appearance of the city? Were there any schools at this time? 
What instruction did a Greek boy receive? Describe the importance 
of athletics. What were the chief athletic events? What were 
the Academy and Lyceum? What opportunities were offered for 
higher education? What was the nature of the teachings of the 



90 



General History of Europe 



Sophists ? Why were these teachers opposed ? What progress was 
made in science ? in medicine ? Who was the first historian of whom 
we have any account ? With what events does his history deal ? 

II. Describe the most celebrated building of Athens — the Parthenon. 
What importance did the drama have at this time ? Tell something of 
the plays of ^schylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Can you give the 
names of any of their plays? Contrast as far as you can the Greek 
play with our own. What two kinds of plays were given? Define a 
tragedy ; a comedy. Can you recall any examples in English, for in- 
stance, among the plays of Shakespeare ? What books were available 
at this time? . 

III. Why was Athens looked upon with jealousy by the other 
cities of Greece ? Review the Second Peloponnesian War. Who was 
Alcibiades ? Describe the fall of Athens. 




Note. This illustration shows us the lovely porch of the Maidens built to adorn the 
temple on the Acropolis known as the Erechtheum. It was a very ancient sanctuary of 
Athena, supposed to have gained its name because it was originally a shrine in the castle 
of the prehistoric king Erechtheus on the Acropolis. The temple was believed to stand 
on the spot where Athena overcame Poseidon in her battle with him for the possession 
of Attica, and here was the mark of the sea god's trident which he struck into the earth. 
Here also grew the original olive tree which Athena summoned from the earth as a gift 
to the Athenians. The building was erected during the last Peloponnesian war, in spite 
of the financial distress of Athens at that time, It is one of the most beautiful archi- 
tectural works left us by the Greeks. 



CHAPTER VII 

CONTINUED CONFLICTS AMONG THE GREEK STATES ; 
ART AND LITERATURE AFTER PERICLES 

I. Political Revolutions 

136. Spartan Rule ; Struggle of Oligarchy and Democracy. 

The long struggle of Athens for the leadership of the Greek world 
had failed. It now remained to be seen whether her victorious 
rival, Sparta, was any better suited to undertake such leadership. 
Military garrisons commanded by Spartan officers were placed 
in many of the Greek cities, and Spartan control was maintained 
in a much more offensive form than was the old tyranny of 
Athens. In each city the Spartans established and supported by 
military force a government carried on by a small group of men 
from the noble or upper class. The rule of a small group was 
called oligarchy, a Greek term meaning "rule of a few." In this 
violent way Sparta was able to repress the democracies which had 
been hostile to her. In some cities the oligarchies were guilty of 
the worst excesses, murdering or banishing their political oppo- 
nents and seizing their fortunes. When the atrocities of the oli- 
garchs, backed by Sparta, became quite unbearable in any city, 
the people would be roused to revolution and would drive their 
rulers out. So there was constant disorder within the Greek states 
as well as continued wars between them. It is a dreary story 
which need not be told here. 

137. Rise of Professional Soldiers. The Peloponnesian Wars 
had kept large numbers of Greeks so long in the army that many 
of them remained in military life and became professional sol- 
diers. Soldiers serving a foreign state for pay are called "mer- 
cenaries." The Greek youths who could find no opportunities at 
home were therefore enlisting as soldiers in Egypt, in Asia Minor, 

9 1 



92 General History of Europe 

and in Persia, and the best young blood of Greece was being 
spent to strengthen foreign states instead of building up the 
power of the Greeks. 

During the Peloponnesian Wars military leadership had also 
become a profession. Athens produced a whole group of pro- 
fessional military leaders ; the most talented among these was 
Xenophon. About 400 b.c. he took service in Asia Minor with 
a young Persian prince who was planning to overthrow his brother, 
the Persian king. The attempt was unsuccessful and in the re- 
treat from Babylon Xenophon led ten thousand Greek merce- 
naries up the Tigris past the ruins of Nineveh and through the 
mountains until they reached the Black Sea and finally returned 
home in safety. Of this extraordinary raid into the Persian Em- 
pire Xenophon has left a history called the Anabasis ("up- 
going"), one of the great books which have descended to us 
from ancient times. 

Just as in our own day there has been a great development of 
warlike devices, such as submarines, tanks, and poisonous gases, 
so the Greeks now began to introduce new war machinery 
from the East, such as movable towers and battering-rams 
for attacking cities. At the same time the size of the war- 
ships was increased. The newer ones had five banks of oars 
instead of three, and the older triremes could no longer face these 
improved and powerful vessels. Fighting continued, in spite of 
all the disasters it caused, to be one of the chief preoccupations 
of the Greeks. 

138. Final Humiliation of Sparta. Sparta managed to main- 
tain her leadership for over thirty years. But she had to face 
frequent revolts on the part of the cities which resented her 
overlordship. The city of Thebes finally combined with Athens 
to crush Sparta. After a long war the distinguished Theban gen- 
eral and statesman Epaminondas decisively defeated the Spartans 
in the battle of Leuctra (371 B.C.). Over half of the Spartans 
engaged were slain and with them their king. It became clear 
that Sparta was not invincible, and she lost the repute which she 
had so long enjoyed on account of her military prowess. 



Art and Literature after Pericles 93 

139. Fall of Thebes and Political Prostration of the Whole 
Greek World. It then remained to be seen whether Thebes, the 
new victor, could accomplish what Athens and Sparta had failed 
in doing and could create a Greek nation. But the supremacy 
of the Thebans was based upon the genius of a single man, and 
when Epaminondas fell in battle (362 B.C.), the power of Thebes 

collapsed. 

Thus the only powerful Greek states which might have welded 
the Hellenic world into a nation had crushed each other. Hellas 
was therefore doomed to fall helplessly before a conqueror from 
the outside. Yet in spite of their political decline during the two 
generations since Pericles, the Greeks, and especially the Athe- 
nians, had made such marvelous progress in art, architecture, 
literature, philosophy, and science that this period is regarded as 
one of the greatest in the history of man. 

II. Greek Art, Literature, and Philosophy 

140. Importance of Athens. In spite of the violence and dis- 
order which we have been describing, there was a great deal of 
what we should call prosperity. Athens was the leading business 
center of the Mediterranean. While farming declined, manu- 
facture and trade nourished, notwithstanding the constant losses 
due to war. Rich men combined to form the first great banks at 
Athens, which became the financial center of the ancient world, 
as New York and London are in our day. Her bankers became 
the proverbially rich men of the time. So there was wealth and 
leisure for the more fortunate classes at least. Instead of becom- 
ing mere money getters, however, the Athenians showed an 
extraordinary interest in art and philosophy. 

141. The Sculpture of Praxiteles. Sculpture had changed 
much since the days of Pericles. The statues of men and women 
were no longer modeled in the rigid and severe form which had 
previously prevailed. Praxiteles, by far the most famous sculp- 
tor of this period, set the example of a more human and natural 
way of carving his marble figures. Unlike the cold and majestic 



94 



General History of Europe 




A Wall-Painting at Pompeii showing the Sacrifice of Iphigenia 

The works of the great fourth-century artists have all perished, but it is 
supposed that the later house decorators and wall-painters of Italy copied 
the old masterpieces. Hence the scene here shown probably conveys some 
impression of old Greek painting. The scene shows us the maid Iphigenia 
as she is carried away to be slain as a sacrifice. The figure at the left, 
standing with veiled face, suggests, as often in modern art, the dreadfulness 
of a coming catastrophe, which human eyes are unwilling to behold. Note 
the skill with which human limbs are made to show thickness and roundness 



representations of the gods which we have from the hand of 
Phidias, the gods and goddesses of Praxiteles appear as very lovely 
and ideal human beings, who stand at ease in graceful attitudes 
with care-free faces. 

142. Painting and Discovery of Perspective. The introduc- 
tion of painting on wooden tablets made it possible for people of 




Hermes playing with the Child Dionysus 

The uplifted right hand (now broken off) of the god probably held a 
bunch of grapes, with which he was amusing the child. This wonderful 
work was wrought by the sculptor Praxiteles and is one of the few original 
works of the greatest Greek sculptors found in Greece. Nearly all such 
Greek originals have perished, and we know them only in ancient Roman 
copies found in Italy. This great work was dug out at Olympia 






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Art and Literature after Pericles 95 

wealth to have pictures in their own houses, and in this way 
private support of art increased and painting made more rapid 
progress than ever before. An Athenian artist named Apollo- 
dorus now began to notice that the light usually fell on an 
object from one side, leaving the unlighted side so dark that but 
little color showed on that side, while on the lighted side the colors 
came out very brightly. When he painted a woman's arm in this 
way, lo, it looked round and seemed to stand out from the sur- 
face of the painting ; whereas in the older Greek paintings all 
the human limbs looked perfectly flat. By representing figures 
in the background of his paintings as smaller than those in front, 
Apollodorus also introduced what we now call perspective. 

143. Age of Conflict after the Death of Pericles. Any young 
Athenian born at about the time of Pericles' death found himself 
in an age of conflict wherever he went : an age of conflict abroad 
on the field of battle as he stood with spear and shield in the 
Athenian ranks in the long years of warfare between Athens, 
Sparta, and Thebes ; an age of conflict at home in Athens amid 
the tumult and even bloodshed of the streets and markets of the 
city, as the common people, the democracy, struggled with the 
nobles for the leadership of the State ; and finally an age of con- 
flict in himself as he felt his own faith in old things struggling to 
maintain itself against new views which were coming in. 

He recalled the childhood tales of the gods, which he had heard 
at his nurse's knee. When he had asked her how the gods looked 
she had pointed to a beautiful vase in his father's house. There 
were the gods on the vase in human form, and so he had long 
thought of them as people like those of Athens. Later at school 
he had memorized long passages of the Homeric poems and 
learned more about the gods' adventures on earth. Then he had 
begun to go to the theater, where he was much delighted with the 
comedies of Aristophanes, the greatest of the comedy writers 
(§ 127). Aristophanes ridiculed such men as Euripides and the 
Sophists, who doubted the existence of the gods. 

144. Victory of Doubt; Triumph of Euripides. When, how- 
ever, this young Athenian left his boyhood teacher behind and went 



9 6 



General History of Europe 



to hear the lectures of some noted Sophist (§ 120), he was told 
that no one knew with any certainty whether the gods existed, nor 
what they were like. Whatever the gods might be like, the 
Sophist was sure they were not such beings as he found pictured 
in the Homeric poems. The youth and his educated friends were 

all reading the splendid plays 
of Euripides (§ 126), with their 
uncertainties and struggles and 
doubts about life and the gods. 
Euripides, to whom the Athe- 
nians had rarely voted a victory 
during his lifetime, had now tri- 
umphed ; and his triumph meant 
the defeat of the old beliefs, the 
rejection of the old ideas of the 
gods, and the incoming of a new 
age in thought and religion. 

145. Socrates. One of the 
chief doubters of the time was a 
poor Athenian named Socrates, 
whose ill-clothed figure and ugly 
face had become familiar in the 
streets to all the folk of Athens 
since the outbreak of the second 
war with Sparta. He was ac- 
customed to stand about the market place all day long entering 
into conversation with anyone he met and asking a great many 
questions very hard to answer. Socrates' questions left most people 
in a very confused state of mind, for he seemed to throw 
doubt on many things which the Athenians had hitherto taken 
for granted. 

Yet the familiar and homely figure of this stonecutter's son 
was the personification of the best and highest things in Greek 
genius. Without desire for office or a political career, Socrates' 
greatest interest nevertheless was the State. He believed that the 
State, made up as it was of citizens, could be purified and saved 




Portrait of Euripides 

The name of the poet (§126) is 

engraved in Greek letters along the 

lower edge of the bust 



Art and Literature after Pericles 



97 



only by the improvement of the individual citizen through the edu- 
cation of his mind to understand and appreciate virtue and justice 

Inspired by this belief, Socrates 
went about in Athens engaging his 
fellow citizens in discussion, with the 
hope that he might teach them better 
to understand themselves and the pur- 
poses of life. While Socrates made no 
appeal to religion as an influence to- 
ward good conduct, he nevertheless 
showed himself a deeply religious man, 
believing with devout heart in the 
gods, although they were not those of 
Homer, and even feeling, like the He- 
brew prophets, that there was a divine 
voice within him calling him to his 
high mission. 

Socrates' fame spread far and wide, 
and when the Delphian oracle (§87) 
was asked who was the wisest of liv- 
ing men it responded with the name of 
this greatest of Greek teachers. A group 
of pupils gathered about him, among 
whom the most famous was Plato. 
But the aims and noble efforts of Soc- 
rates were misunderstood. His keen 
questions seemed to undermine all the 
old beliefs. 

146. The Trial and Death of Soc- 
rates (399 B. c). So the Athenians 

summoned Socrates to trial for corrupting the youth with all 
sorts of doubts and impious teachings. He might easily have left 
Athens when the complaint was lodged against him. Nevertheless 
he appeared for trial, made a powerful and dignified defense, and, 
when the court voted the death penalty, passed his last days 
in tranquil conversation with his friends and pupils, in whose 




Portrait of Socrates 

This is not the best of the 
numerous surviving portraits 
of Socrates, but it is espe- 
cially interesting because it 
bears under the philosopher's 
name nine inscribed lines 
containing a portion of his 
public defense as reported 
by Plato in his Apology 



98 General History of Europe 

presence he then quietly drank the fatal hemlock poison. Thus 
the Athenian democracy, which had so mismanaged the affairs of 
the nation in war, brought upon itself much greater reproach in 
quite unjustly condemning to death its most profound thinker 
and reformer. 

147. Writing of History. The change in Greek belief was also 
evident in a new and remarkable history. Its author was Thu- 
cydides, the first scientific writer of history. A generation earlier 
Herodotus' history (§ 122) had represented the fortunes of na- 
tions as due to the will of the gods ; but Thucydides, with an in- 
sight like that of modern historians, traced historical events to 
their earthly causes in the world of men where they occur. There 
stood the two books, Herodotus and Thucydides, side by side in 
the citizen's library. There were only thirty years or so between 
them, but how different the beliefs of the two historians, the old 
and the new! The history of Thucydides has been one of the 
world's greatest prose classics ever since. 

148. Plato (427-347 b. c.) and his Dialogues. Plato, by far the 
most gifted of the pupils of Socrates, wrote out much of his mas- 
ter's teachings in the form of imaginary conversations between 
Socrates and those who flocked around him to discuss the deep 
problems of man's nature and duty. These Dialogues are at 
once so charming and so full of profound thought that they are 
still ranked among the most wonderful books of all the ages. 
They give us a lively idea of the informal way in which the 
intellectual Athenians were wont to meet in the market place or 
in the house of some thoughtful citizen and confer together on 
the good, the true, and the beautiful. Among the most famous 
of the immortal Dialogues are those describing Socrates' defense 
of his teaching against his accusers and the calm manner in which 
he cheerfully discussed the immortality of the soul with his 
companions while he sat in prison and waited for the fatal draught 
of the poisonous hemlock to be administered. He faced death 
serenely, assured that his spirit would not perish with the body. 
It is through the writings of Plato that we learn most of what 
we know of Socrates, for he himself wrote nothing, 



Art and Literature after Pericles 99 

149. Aristotle (384-322 b. a). One of Plato's students, Aris- 
totle, was destined to gain a reputation through the ages almost 
greater than that of his master. With the help of his own 
advanced students Aristotle composed treatises on almost every 
imaginable subject — politics, ethics, economics, psychology, zool- 
ogy, astronomy, poetry, and the drama. Indeed, it seems to have 
been his ambition to tell everything that had ever been discovered 
and present this information in such a way that others could 
easily learn it. His skill and knowledge were so great that in the 
Middle Ages his books were almost the only ones studied in the 
medieval universities, and he is still revered as perhaps the great- 
est scholar that the world has ever produced. Certainly the 
writings of no other man have ever enjoyed such long and wide- 
spread and unquestioned authority. 

150. Continued Disunion of the Greeks and their Loss of 
Independence. In one of his most famous dialogues, The Repub- 
lic, Plato discusses the best organization of government. It is 
remarkable that he always has in mind the old city-state of the 
Greeks and fails to see that the real question of his day was the 
relation of the various city-states — like Athens, Sparta, Corinth, 
and Thebes — to one another. He did not realize that no com- 
munity, no matter how well organized, can stand absolutely 
alone, but must, if war and confusion are to be avoided, come to 
some good understanding with its neighbors. And this under- 
standing the Greek cities had never reached, for they had never 
been willing to establish anything like a strong and permanent 
jederal government, such as we have in the United States. 

One of the men who saw all this most clearly was the great 
orator and statesman Isocrates. He eloquently urged the Greeks 
to neglect their petty differences and enlarge their local patriotism 
into a loyalty toward the Greeks as a whole, and so create a Greek 
nation which should be able to defend itself against the "bar- 
barians," or non-Greek world. But the cities stubbornly refused 
to give up their independence, and as a consequence they soon 
fell under the sway of a foreign power, Macedonia, and later, as 
we shall see, were merged into the Roman Empire. 



ioo General History of Europe 

151. Summary of Greek Achievement after Pericles. The 

constant conflicts among the Greek cities, which proved so fatal 
to their political independence, had nevertheless spurred on each 
city to surpass its rivals in art and literature and all tha*t is finest 
in civilization. Great as was the age of Pericles, the age that 
followed was still greater. The tiny Athenian state, having at 
most twenty-five or thirty thousand citizens, had furnished in 
this period a group of great artists and thinkers such as never in 
all the history of the world arose elsewhere in so small a com- 
munity. Their names today are among the most illustrious in 
human history, and the achievements which are associated with 
them form one of the greatest chapters in the higher life of man. 

QUESTIONS 

I. What is the meaning of "oligarchy"? Describe the condition of 
Greece under the leadership of Sparta. What are "mercenaries"? 
When were professional soldiers and professional military leadership 
introduced into Greece? Can you give examples in modern states of 
professional soldiers and citizen soldiers ? What do we usually call the 
citizen soldiers in America? What circumstances led Xenophon to 
write the Anabasis} What improvements were made in military 
equipment? Where did the Greeks learn the use of siege machinery? 
How long was Sparta able to maintain her supremacy? What com- 
bination succeeded in overthrowing Sparta ? What put an end to the 
constant fighting between the city-states? 

II. Describe the development of business at Athens. What advance 
was made in sculpture? What discoveries in the art of painting were 
made by Apollodorus? What newer ideas were coming in during the 
period of conflict? Tell what you know of the plays of Euripides. 
Who was Socrates ? Did he leave any writings ? How do we know of 
him? What is the Socralic method of teaching? What was the fate 
of Socrates ? What advance was made in the writing of history ? How 
did the history of Thucydides differ from that of Herodotus ? Tell 
what you know of Plato. What contributions did Aristotle make to 
knowledge? What practical truth did Isocrates try to teach the 
Greeks ? 



CHAPTER VIII 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND THE HELLENISTIC AGE 

I. Macedonia and Alexander the Great 

152. Philip of Macedonia and his New Army. A new power 
was developing to the north of the Greek cities, which was to 
play a great part in Greek affairs. This was Macedonia. Its 
first king of importance was Philip, the father of Alexander the 
Great. He came into control of Macedonia in 360 B.C. He had 
a Greek education and aspired to make himself master of the old 
and famous Greek cities to the south. His first step was to 
create a new and powerful army organized as a permanent institu- 
tion. It was made up of infantry which fought in "phalanxes," 
or compact bodies of warriors trained to work together, and 
cavalry, which also moved about in masses and supported the 
phalanxes. This formed the very powerful Macedonian war 
machine by means of which Philip and his far more celebrated son 
were able to gain their astonishing victories. 

153. Philip gains the Leadership of the Greeks (338 B.C.). 
Philip steadily extended the territory of his kingdom eastward 
and northward until it reached the Danube and the Hellespont. 
His progress soon brought him into conflict with the Greek states, 
which controlled cities in this northern region. Two parties 
then arose at Athens. One of them was quite willing to accept 
Philip's proffered friendship and to recognize in him the savior 
of the Greek world. The leader of this party was Isocrates 
(§ 150), now an aged man. The opposing party denounced 
Philip as a barbarous tyrant who was endeavoring to enslave 
the free Greek cities. The leader of this anti-Macedonian party 
was the great orator Demosthenes. His Philippics, as his public 

IOI 



102 



General History of Europe 



speeches denouncing King Philip are called, are among the finest 
specimens of Greek eloquence. 

After a long series of hostilities Philip defeated the Greek forces 
in a final battle of Chaeronea (338 B.C.) and firmly established 
his position as head of a league of all the Greek, states except 

Sparta, which still held out against 
him. He had begun operations in 
Asia Minor intended to set free the 
Greek cities there, when, two years 
after the battle of Chaeronea, he was 
stabbed by conspirators during the 
revelries at the wedding of his 
daughter (336 B.C.). 

154. Education and Character of 
Alexander the Great. The kingship 
passed into the hands of Philip's son 
Alexander, a youth of only twenty 
years. Seven years before, when 
Alexander was thirteen, his father 
had summoned to the Macedonian 
court the great philosopher Aristotle 
to be the teacher of the young prince. 
Under his instruction Alexander had learned to know and love the 
masterpieces of Greek literature, especially the Homeric songs. 
The deeds of the ancient heroes touched and kindled his youthful 
imagination and lent a heroic tinge to his whole character. 

155. Alexander subjugates the Greek States. The Greek 
states were still unwilling to submit to Macedonian leadership, 
and they fancied they could easily overthrow so young a ruler as 
Alexander. They were soon to learn how old a head there was 
on his shoulders. When Thebes revolted against Macedonia for 
the second time after Philip's death, Alexander captured and 
completely destroyed the city, sparing only the house of the great 
poet Pindar. All Greece was thus taught to fear and respect his 
power, but learned at the same time to recognize his reverence for 
Greek culture. The Greek states, accordingly, with the exception 




Portrait Bust of 
Demosthenes 



Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age 103 

of Sparta, formed a league and elected Alexander as its leader 
and general. As a result they all sent troops to increase his army. 

156. Alexander, the Champion of Hellas against Asia. The 
Asiatic campaign which Alexander now planned was to make it 
clear that he was the champion of Hellas against Asia and its 
Persian rulers. Leading his army into Asia Minor, he stopped at 
Troy and camped upon the plain where the Greek heroes of the 
Homeric songs had once fought. Here he worshiped in the temple 
of Athena and prayed for the success of his cause against Persia. 
He thus contrived to throw around himself the heroic memories 
of the Trojan War, till all Hellas beheld the dauntless figure of 
the Macedonian youth as if he had stepped out of that glorious 
age which in their belief had long ago united Greek arms against 
Asia. 

157. Battle of the Granicus (334 B.C.) and Conquest of 
Asia Minor. Meantime the Persian king had hired thousands of 
Greek heavy-armed infantry, and they were now to do battle 
against their own Greek countrymen. At the river Granicus, in 
his first critical battle, Alexander had no difficulty in scattering 
the forces of the western Persian satraps. Marching southward 
he retook the Greek cities which had long before been conquered 
by the Persians and freed all western Asia Minor forever from 
the Persian yoke. 

Alexander then pushed boldly eastward and rounded the north- 
east corner of the Mediterranean. Here, as he looked out upon 
the Fertile Crescent, there was spread before him the vast 
Asiatic world where the family of the Great King had been su- 
preme for two centuries. In this vast arena he was to be the 
champion for the next ten years (333-323 B.C.). 

158. Defeat of Darius III at the Battle of Issus (333 B.C.). 
At this important point, by the Gulf of Issus (see map, p. 104), 
Alexander met the main army of Persia, under the personal com- 
mand of King Darius III, the last of the Persian line. The 
Macedonians swept the Asiatics from the field (see Ancient Times, 
Fig. 202), and the disorderly retreat of Darius never stopped 
until the Euphrates had been crossed. The Great King then 



104 General History of Europe 

sent a letter to Alexander, desiring terms of peace and offering to 
accept the Euphrates as a boundary, and arranging that all 
Asia west of that river be handed over to the Macedonians. 

Alexander's friends advised him to accept the terms. But 
before the kindling eyes of the young king there rose a vision of 
world empire controlled by Greek civilization — a vision to which 
the duller eyes about him were entirely closed. He waved aside 
his father's old counselors and decided to advance to the conquest 
of the whole Persian Empire. 

159. Conquest of Phoenicia and Egypt. The danger from 
the Persian fleet was now carefully and deliberately met by a 
march southward along the eastern end of the Mediterranean. 
All the Phoenician seaports on the way were captured. Feeble 
Egypt, so long a Persian province, then fell an easy prey to the 
Macedonian army. The Persian fleet, thus deprived of all its 
home harbors and cut off from its home government, soon 
scattered and disappeared. 

160. Alexander Lord of the Ancient East (330 b. c). Hav- 
ing thus cut off the hostile fleet in his rear, Alexander returned 
from Egypt to Asia, and, marching eastward along the Fertile 
Crescent, crossed the Tigris close by the mounds which had 
long covered the ruins of Nineveh. Here, near Arbela, the Great 
King had gathered his forces for a last stand (see map, p. 104). 
Although greatly outnumbered, the Macedonians crushed the 
Asiatic army and forced the Persians into disgraceful flight. In 
a few days Alexander was living in the winter palace of the 
Persian king in Babylon. 

At last both the valley of the Nile and the Fertile Crescent, 
the homes of the two earliest civilizations, were now in the 
hands of a European power and under the control of a newer and 
higher civilization. Less than five years had passed since the 
young Macedonian had entered Asia. 

161. Alexander's Campaigns in the Far East (330-324 B.C.) 
and his Return to Babylon (323 B.C.). In the course of the next 
few years Alexander marched his army northward across the 
Oxus and the Jaxartes rivers, southward across the Indus and the 



Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age 105 

frontiers of India, into the valley of the Ganges, where at last 
the complaints of his weary troops forced him to turn back. 

The return march through desert wastes cost many lives as the 
thirsty and ill-provisioned troops dropped by the way. Over seven 
years after he had left the great city of Babylon, Alexander 
entered it again. He had been less than twelve years in Asia, 
and he had carried Greek civilization into the very heart of the 
continent. At important points along his line of march he had 
founded Greek cities bearing his name and had set up kingdoms 
which were to be centers of Greek influence on the frontiers 
of India. 

162. His Plans to conquer the Western Mediterranean. In 
the midst of all this he carefully worked out a plan of campaign 
for the conquest of the western Mediterranean. His program in- 
cluded the building of a fleet of a thousand battleships with which 
to subdue Italy, Sicily, and Carthage. It also included the con- 
struction of a vast roadway along the northern coast of Africa, 
to be built at enormous expense, to furnish a highway for his 
army from Egypt to Carthage and the Atlantic. 

163. Deification of Alexander. The great rulers of the Orient 
had been regarded as descended from gods. Alexander now 
deemed it advisable to secure a similar distinction for himself. 
He therefore had the Egyptian priests salute him as the son 
of their god Amon (Ancient Times, § 706). He adopted oriental 
usages, among which was the requirement that all who approached 
him on official occasions should bow down to the earth and kiss 
his feet. Formal notification was sent to all the Greek cities 
that he was henceforth to be officially numbered among the gods 
of each city, and that as such he was to receive the State offerings 
which each city presented. In this way absolute monarchy and 
the divine right of kings were introduced into Europe for the 
first time. 

164. Death of Alexander (323 B.C.). As Alexander was pre- 
paring for a campaign to subjugate the Arabian peninsula which 
would leave him free to carry out his great plans for the conquest 
of the western Mediterranean he fell sick, probably as the result 



106 General History of Europe 

of a drunken debauch, and after a few days died (323 B.C.)- He 
was thirty-three years of age and had reigned thirteen years. 

Alexander has been well termed "the Great." Few men of 
genius, and certainly none in so brief a career, have left so in- 
delible a mark upon the course of human affairs. Alexander's 
amazing conquests had placed the Orient under European leaders, 
and from that day to this — with some intervals — the effort to 
force Western leadership on the Orient has continued. 

165. Division of Alexanders Realm ; the Ptolemies in 
Egypt. After a .generation of exhausting wars by land and sea 
Alexander's empire fell into three main parts, — in Europe, Asia, 
and Africa, — with one of his generals, or one of their successors, 
at the head of each. In Europe, Macedonia was in the hands 
of Antigonus, grandson of Alexander's commander of the same 
name. He endeavored also to maintain control of Greece. In 
Asia most of the territory of the former Persian Empire was 
under the rule of Alexander's general Seleucus, who founded the 
important city of Antioch. In Africa, Egypt was held by Ptolemy, 
one of the cleverest of Alexander's Macedonian leaders. He grad- 
ually made himself king and became the founder of a dynasty or 
family of kings, whom we call the Ptolemies. He took up his 
residence at the great harbor city of Alexandria, the city which 
Alexander had founded in the western Nile delta. For nearly a 
century (roughly the third century B.C.) the eastern Mediterra- 
nean, from Greece to Syria and from the ^Egean to the Nile delta, 
was under the control of Egypt. 

166. Decline of Greece. Greece was no longer commercial 
leader of the Mediterranean. The victories of Alexander the 
Great had opened up the vast Persian Empire to Greek commer- 
cial colonists, who poured into all the favorable centers of trade. 
Not only did Greece decline in population, but business pros- 
perity and the leadership in trade passed eastward, especially to 
Alexandria and Antioch. As the Greek cities lost their wealth 
they could no longer support fleets or mercenary armies, and they 
soon became too feeble to protect themselves. Although they 
began to combine in alliances or federations for mutual assistance, 



Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age 107 



they were unable to throw off the Macedonian yoke. In spite of 
the political feebleness of the Greeks in this age, their civilization 
maintained its high level under the successors of Alexander. 

II. The Civilization of the Hellenistic Age 

167. The Hellenistic Age. 1 The three centuries following the 
death of Alexander are called the Hellenistic Age, meaning the 




Restoration of the Public Buildings of Pergamum, a Hellenistic 
City of Asia Minor. (After Thiersch) 

Pergamum, on the west coast of Asia Minor, became a nourishing city- 
kingdom in the third century B.C. under the successors of Alexander the 
Great. The dwellings of the citizens were all lower down, in front of the 
group of buildings shown here. These public buildings stand on three 
terraces— lower, middle, and upper. The lafge lower terrace (.4) was the 
main market place, adorned with a vast square marble altar of Zeus, 
having colonnades on three sides, beneath which was a long sculptured band 
(frieze) of warring gods and giants. On the middle terrace (B), behind 
the colonnades, was the famous library of Pergamum, where the stone bases 
of library shelves still survive. The upper terrace (C) once contained the 
palace of the king; the temple now there was built by the Roman emperor 
Trajan in the second century of the Christian Era 

period in which Greek civilization spread throughout the ancient 
world. The orientals now had Greek-speaking rulers and were 
constantly carrying on business with Greek merchants; they 

1 For a fuller sketch of Hellenistic civilization see Ancient Times, §§ 727-768. 



io8 



General History of Europe 



found many Greek books to read and Greek plays to attend. 
Greek thus gradually became the prevailing language of the great 
cities and of an enormous world stretching from southern Italy 
eastward on both sides of the Mediterranean far into Asia. 




The Lighthouse of the Harbor of Alexandria in the Hellenistic 

Age. (After Thiersch) 

The harbor of Alexandria (see corner map) was protected by an island 
called Pharos, which was connected with the city by a causeway of stone. 
On the island, and bearing its name (Pharos), was built (after 300 B.C.) a 
vast stone lighthouse, some three hundred and seventy feet high (that is, over 
thirty stories, like those of a modern skyscraper). It shows how vast was the 
commerce and wealth of Alexandria only a generation after it was founded 
by Alexander the Great, when it became the New York or Liverpool of the 
ancient world, the greatest port on the Mediterranean 

City life was more comfortable than ever before. The houses 
were more beautifully furnished and decorated, and for the first 
time water pipes were installed connected with a town water 
supply. The streets also were equipped with drainage channels 
or pipes, a thing unknown in the days of Pericles. 

168. Alexandria : its Commerce and Splendid Public Build- 
ings. In numbers, wealth, commerce, and in all the arts of civil- 
ization Alexandria was now the greatest city of the whole ancient 




Example of Hellenistic Statuary 

The kings of Pergamum had to repel an invasion of the Gauls from the 
North, and this struggle is represented on one of the surviving pieces of 
sculpture. Here we have one of the defeated Gallic chieftains, who with 
one hand supports his dying wife and with the other plunges his sword into 
his own breast, at the same time casting a terrified glance at the pursuing 
enemy. The tremendous power of the barbarian's muscular figure is in 
startling contrast with the helpless limbs of the woman 




Sculptures from the Hellenistic City of Pergamum 

Above is a Gallic trumpeter, as he sinks in death with his trumpet at his 
feet. Below is a part of the frieze around the great altar of Zeus at 
Pergamum. It pictures the mythical struggle between gods and giants. A 
giant at the left, whose limbs end in serpents, raises over his head a 
great stone to hurl it at the goddess on the right 



Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age 109 

world. Along the harbors stretched the extensive Alexandrian 
docks, where ships which had braved the Atlantic storms off the 
coasts of Spain and Africa moored beside oriental craft which 
had penetrated even to the gates of the Indian Ocean. From far 
across the sea the mariners approaching at night could catch the 
light of a lofty beacon shining from a gigantic lighthouse tower 
which marked the entrance to the harbor of Alexandria. 

From the deck of a great merchant ship of over four thousand 
tons the incoming traveler might look cityward past the lighthouse 
and beyond the great war fleet of the Ptolemies and see, embow- 
ered in the rich green masses of tropical verdure, the magnificent 
marble buildings of Alexandria: the royal palace, the museum, 
the gymnasiums, baths, stadiums, assembly hall, concert hall, 
market places, and basilicas, all surrounded by the residence 
quarters of the citizens. Unfortunately not one of the splendid 
buildings of ancient Alexandria still stands. 

169. Scientific Advance ; Archimedes. The keen intelligence 
of' this wonderful age was everywhere evident. Some interesting 
inventions were made ; for example, the screw and the cogwheel. 
One of the famous feats of the great scientist Archimedes was his 
arrangement of a series of pulleys and levers which so multiplied 
power that he was able by turning a light crank to launch a 
large three-masted ship standing fully loaded on the dock. After 
witnessing such feats as this the people easily believed his proud 
boast, "Give me a place to stand on and I will move the earth." 
But Archimedes was far more than an inventor of practical appli- 
ances. He was a scientific investigator of the first rank, the dis- 
coverer of what we now call " specific gravity." Besides his skill 
in physics he was also the greatest of ancient mathematicians. 

170. The Alexandrian Scientists. Although Archimedes lived 
in Syracuse he was in close correspondence with his friends in 
Alexandria, who formed the greatest body of scientists in the 
ancient world. They lived together at the Museum, a sort of 
university where they were paid salaries and supported by the 
Ptolemies. They formed the first scientific institution founded 
and supported by a government. They were the forerunners of 



no 



General History of Europe 




systematic scientific research, and their books were regarded as 
authorities for nearly two thousand years, until science took a 
new start in modern times. 

The most famous mathematician among them was Euclid. His 
system of geometry was so logically built up that in modern Eng- 
land Euclid's geometry is still 
retained as a schoolbook — 
the oldest schoolbook in use 
today. The Ptolemies built 
an astronomical observatory 
at Alexandria, and although it 
was, of course, without tele- 
scopes, important observations 
and discoveries were made. 
An astronomer of little fame, 
named Aristarchus, who lived 
on the island of Samos, even 
discovered that the earth and 
the planets revolve around the 
sun, though few people would 
believe him and his discovery 
was forgotten. 

Astronomy greatly aided in 
the progress of geography. 
Eratosthenes, a mathematical 
astronomer of Alexandria, very 
cleverly computed the size of 
the earth. Much new infor- 
mation had also been gained regarding the extent and the char- 
acter of the regions reached by explorers in this age, from the 
eastern coast of India to the British Isles. Eratosthenes was 
therefore able to write a more accurate geography than anyone 
before his time. It contained the first map bearing a cross-net 
of lines indicating latitude and longitude. This enabled him to 
locate any spot on land or sea far more accurately than had 
been possible before. 




Hellenistic Portrait Head in 
Bronze 

This magnificent head of an unknown 
man, with wonderful representation 
of the hair, was recovered from the 
bottom of the sea. It is now in the 
Museum of Athens 



Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age 



in 




Map of the World according to Herodotus (450 b. c.) 




Map of the World according to Eratosthenes (200 b. c.) 

171. The Alexandrian Library and Book Publishing. Be- 
sides these natural sciences there was now much study of litera- 
ture. All other libraries of the time were far surpassed by that of 
the Ptolemies at Alexandria, which finally contained over half a 
million rolls. The immense amount of copying by hand required 



ii2 General History of Europe 

to secure good and accurate editions of famous works for this 
library gradually created the new science of editing and publish- 
ing correctly old and often badly copied works. This naturally 
required careful study of language and writing, and the Alexan- 
drian scholars began to write the first grammars and dictionaries. 






A Page from the Earliest Surviving Greek Book 

This book, written on papyrus, was found lying beside the body of a man 

buried in an Egyptian cemetery. What we have called a page is really a 

column of writing, and the book consisted of a series of such columns side 

by side on the roll (see cut on next page) 



172. The Schools of the University at Athens. Athens was 
still the leading center of philosophy. The youth who went there 
to take up philosophical studies found the successors of Plato 
still continuing his teaching in the quiet grove of the Academy 
(§ 119), where his memory was greatly revered. Plato's pupil 
Aristotle, after having been the teacher of the young Alexander, 
had returned to Athens, and had also established at the Lyceum 



Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age 113 




(§119) a school of his own known as the Peripatetic School, 
because it occupied a terrace called the "Walk" (Greek, peripatos). 

But many Greeks desired 
some teaching which would 
lead them to a happy and con- 
tented frame of mind and guide 
men in their attempts to live 
successfully. To meet this de- 
sire two more schools of phi- 
losophy arose at Athens. The 
first was the Stoic School, which 
derived its name from a portico 
in Athens called the Stoa. This 
school taught that the great 
aim of life should be a forti- 
tude of soul indifferent both to 
pleasure and to pain. Its fol- 
lowers were famous for their 
fortitude, and hence our com- 
mon use of the word " stoicism " 
to indicate indifference to suf- 
fering. The Stoic School was 
very popular and finally be- 
came the greatest of the schools 
of philosophy. The second, the 
Epicurean School, founded by 
Epicurus in his own garden at 
Athens, taught that the highest 
good was happiness, both of 
body and of mind, but always 
in moderation and in accord- 
ance with virtue. Its views 
were high-minded but often 

misunderstood, hence even now we call a man devoted to pleasure, 
especially in eating, an "epicure." The School of Epicurus, like 
the Stoics, flourished and attracted many disciples. 



Greek Youth reading from a 
Roll, or Book 

It will be seen that the young man 
holds the roll so that he rolls up a 
portion of it with one hand as he 
unrolls another portion with the 
other. He soon has a roll in each 
hand, while he holds smoothly 
stretched out between the two rolls 
the exposed portion, from which he 
reads a column of writing like that 
which we see photographed from the 
oldest-preserved Greek book (roll). 
Such a column formed for him a 
page, but when it was read, in- 
stead of turning a page as we do, 
he rolled it away to the left side 
and brought into view a new column 
from the other roll on the right side 



ii4 General History of Europe 

173. The Fall of the Old Greek Gods. For highly educated 
men the beliefs of Stoicism or Epicureanism served as their re- 
ligion. They usually no longer believed in the gods in the old way. 
There was complete freedom of conscience — far more freedom 
than the Christian rulers of later Europe granted their subjects. 
The teachings of Socrates would not now have caused his condem- 
nation by his Athenian neighbors. 

With the weakening of their faith in the old Greek gods many 
Greeks adopted the gods of Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, and 
these became more and more popular. 

174. The Larger World of the Hellenistic Age. The older 
Greek states had been merged into a larger world. For while 
Greek civilization, with its language, its art, its literature, its 
theaters and gymnasiums, was hellenizing the Orient, the Orient 
in the same way was orientalizing the eastern Mediterranean 
world. But this world of the eastern Mediterranean, which had 
grown up as a result of Alexander's conquests, had by 200 B.C. 
reached a point when it was to come under the control of a great 
new military power from the western Mediterranean. We shall 
be unable to understand the further story of the eastern Mediter- 
ranean until we have turned back and followed the history of the 
western Mediterranean world. In Italy for some three centuries 
the city of Rome had been developing a power which was to unite 
both the East and the West into a vast empire including the 
whole Mediterranean. 

* 
QUESTIONS 

I. Describe the military machine of Philip of Macedonia. How did 
Philip gain the leadership of the Greeks ? Tell what you know of the 
education of Alexander the Great. How did Alexander subjugate the 
Greek states after Philip's death? Describe Alexander's campaign ex- 
tending to the Euphrates River. How did the ancient East come under 
the control of a European power? How were Alexander's realms 
divided at his death? What were the reasons for the political decline 
of Greece ? 

II. What is meant by the Hellenistic Age? Describe the ways in 
which Greek language and civilization were spread into the East. 



Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age 115 

What were the conflicts of city life in this age? Describe the city 
of Alexandria. What advance was made in science? What contribu- 
tions did Archimedes make? What was the Museum in Alexandria? 
For what is Euclid celebrated? What is the derivation and meaning 
of the word "geometry"? Compare the map of the world as under- 
stood in the time of Herodotus and in that of Eratosthenes. What 
progress was made in the knowledge of the earth? What is the 
derivation and meaning of " geography"? How did Eratosthenes lay the 
foundation of modern geography ? Describe the Library of Alexandria. 
What were the main' schools of philosophy at this* time ? Contrast the 
Stoics and Epicureans. What was the attitude of the intellectual class 
toward the gods ? Give the chief effects of Greek ideas on the Orient, 
and of the oriental civilization on the Greek world. 

Note. The tailpiece below is a pleasing example of the Alexandrian art of mosaic — 
the art of putting together brightly colored bits of glass or stone and forming figures or 
designs with them, as a child puts together a puzzle picture. It was an old Egyptian art, 
which was carried much further by the Greeks at Alexandria, where they seem to have 
learned it, and used it in making beautiful pavements. 




BOOK III. THE ROMANS 

CHAPTER IX 

THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN WORLD AND THE 
ROMAN CONQUEST OF ITALY 

I. Italy and the Origin of Rome 

175. The Mediterranean the Center of Ancient History. 

The Mediterranean Sea is a very large body of water, almost as 
long as Europe itself. Laid out across the United States it would 
reach from New York over to California. Italy divides it into 
two basins, which we may conveniently call the eastern and 
western Mediterranean worlds. 

176. Italy : its Geography and Climate. Italy is about six 
hundred miles long. It is not only much larger than Greece but 
possesses wide plains for agriculture and ample upland pasturage 
for flocks and herds ; it is not, like Greece, cut by mountain 
ranges into winding valleys and tiny plains. There are fewer good 
harbors, however, so that the people turned to agriculture and 
the raising of live stock earlier than to sea trade. In Chapter I 
we studied the conditions of Europe in the Prehistoric Age. We 
must now see how Italy was the first region in western Europe to 
reach a high degree of civilization. 

177. Indo-European Peoples enter Italy. Probably not long 
after the Greeks had pushed southward into the Peloponnesus 
(§§ 78-79) the western tribes of Indo-European blood had entered 
the Italian peninsula. The most important group, which settled 
in the central and southern parts of the peninsula, was the Italic 
tribes, the earliest Italians. 

We remember that the Greeks, in conquering the ^Egean, took 
possession of a highly civilized region. This was not the case 

116 



The Western Mediterranean World 117 

with the Indo-European invaders of Italy. They found the west- 
ern Mediterranean world still without civilization. It had no 
architecture, no fine buildings, no fortified cities, only the rudest, 
arts and industries, no writing, no literature, and no organized 
governments. 

178. The Three Western Rivals confronting the Italic 
Tribes. Besides the Italic invaders three other rival peoples 
gradually came into the western Mediterranean world. The first 
of these was a bold race of sea rovers whom we call the Etruscans. 
Their origin is still uncertain, but no matter where they came 
from they were settled in Italy by 1000 b. c. They finally gained 
full control of the west coast from the Bay of Naples almost to 
Genoa and held the inland country to the Adriatic Sea and the 
Alps (see map, p. 122). 

The Carthaginians were the second of the three rivals of the 
Italic tribes. We remember how the Phoenicians carried their com- 
merce far into the western Mediterranean after 1000 b. c. (§ 83). 
On the African coast opposite Sicily they established a flourishing 
commercial city called Carthage. It soon became the leading 
power in the western Mediterranean. 

While the Carthaginians were endeavoring to make the western 
Mediterranean their own, the Italic peoples saw the third of their 
rivals invading the West. These were the Greeks. We have already 
followed the Greek colonies as they founded their city-states 
along the coast of southern Italy and in Sicily in the eighth 
century b.c. (§91). The strongest of all the western Greek cities 
was Syracuse. 

179. Greek Colonies bring Civilization into the Western 
Mediterranean. Although the western Greeks, like those in the 
homeland, fought among themselves and failed to unite in a 
strong and permanent state, they nevertheless brought civilization 
to Italy. Accordingly, fifteen hundred years after the barbarous 
Italic tribes had first settled in Italy there grew up on the south 
of them a wonderful world of Greek civilization. We shall now 
follow the career of the barbarous Italic tribes of central Italy 
under the leadership of Rome, and watch them slowly gaining 



n8 



General History oj Europe 



power and civilization, as they were influenced first by the Etrus- 
cans on their north and then by the Greeks on the south of them, 
and finally coming into mortal rivalry with the Carthaginians. 




A Street of Etruscan Tombs at Ancient Cere not far 
North of Rome 

The tomb-chamber contained a sarcophagus, in which the body was laid 
often accompanied with jewelry of gold and silver, furniture, implements, and 
weapons, besides beautiful vases. The walls of the chambers were in many 
cases painted with decorative scenes from the life of the Etruscans and 
from scenes of Greek mythology, learned by the Etruscans from their inter- 
course with the Greeks. The Etruscans buried here lived in a strong walled 
town, of which the ruins lie near by. Their manufactures, especially in 
bronze, flourished, and they carried on profitable commerce through their 
harbor town, only a few miles below their city. In one of these tombs the 
name of the deceased is inscribed on the wall as "Tarkhnas," which can 
be nothing else than Tarquinius, the name preserved in Roman tradition as 
that of the latest kings of Rome 



180. Early Rome. On the south bank of the Tiber, not far 
from the sea (see map, p. 120), there was a group of Italic tribes 
known as the Latins. In the days when the Etruscan sea raiders 
first landed on the shores north of the Tiber these Latin tribes had 
occupied a plain less than thirty by forty miles. They called it 
"Latium," whence their own name, "Latins." 



The Western Mediterranean World 



119 



When these Latin peasants needed weapons or tools they were 
obliged to carry their grain or oxen to a trading post on the 
Tiber, ten or twelve miles from its mouth. On the low marshy 
ground, encircled by 
the hills, was an open- 
air market, which they 
called the Forum,wheve 
Latin peasants could 
meet Etruscan, traders 
and exchange grain or 
oxen for the metal tools 
or weapons they wished. 
Such must have been 
the condition of the 
humble market village 
called Rome about 

IOOO B.C. 

181. Occupation of 
Rome by the Etrus- 
cans (about 750 B.C.). 
Perhaps as early as 750 
B.C. one of the Etrus- 
can princes crossed the 
Tiber, drove out the 
Latin chieftain, and 
took possession of Rome 
and its stronghold on 
the Palatine. Etruscan 
kings soon extended 
their power over the plain of Latium. Thus Rome became a 
city-kingdom under an Etruscan king, like the other Etruscan 
cities which stretched from Capua far north to the harbor of 
Genoa. Although Rome was ruled by a line of Etruscan kings 
for probably two centuries and a half, it must be borne in mind 
that the population of Latium which the Etruscan kings governed 
continued to be Latin and to speak the Latin tongue. 




Etruscan Chariot of Bronze 

This magnificent chariot is the finest example 
that has been discovered of Etruscan skill 
in bronze. It was found in an Etruscan 
tomb and is now in the possession of the 
Metropolitan Museum of New York. It prob- 
ably dates from the sixth century B.C. 



i20 General History of Europe 

182. Expulsion of the Etruscan Kings of Rome (about 
500 B.C.). The Etruscan kings introduced great improvements in 
Rome, but their cruelty and tyranny finally caused their Latin 
subjects to revolt against them and drive them out of the city. 
The two centuries and a half of Etruscan rule had left their mark 
on Rome, however, for the Etruscans had long traded with the 
Greeks and had become familiar with their industries, art, and 
architecture. Evidences of Etruscan influence are still to be 
found in Italy today (see cuts on pages 118 and 119 ; also Ancient 
Times, Fig. 232). 

II. The Early Roman Republic: its Government 

183. Greek Influence in Rome. The Latins were also directly 
influenced by the Greeks, because ships from the Greek cities of 
southern Italy were becoming more and more common in the 
Tiber. The Roman traders had gradually learned to scribble 
memoranda of their own, using the letters which they found in the 
bills they received from the Greek merchants. Greek letters were 
adopted as the Roman alphabet, slightly changed to suit the 
Latin language. In this way the oriental alphabet was carried one 
step further in the long westward journey which finally made it 
(after some changes) the alphabet with which this book is printed 
(see table on page 58). 

As the trade of the Romans increased it seemed inconvenient to 
pay for goods with grain or oxen as formerly. At length, about 
a hundred and fifty years after the Etruscan kings had been driven 
out, the Romans began to issue copper coins. 

The rather coldly calculating mind of the Roman lacked the 
vivid imagination of the Greeks, which had created the beautiful 
Greek statues and dramas. The Romans were better fitted for 
great achievements in political and legal organization than for 
new developments in religion, art, and literature, or discoveries 
in science. Let us now see how the practical sagacity of the 
Roman developed the Roman State. 

184. Establishment of the Roman Republic ; Consuls and 
Tribunes. When the Etruscan kings were expelled from Rome, 



The Western Mediterranean World 



121 



the nobles, called patricians, were in control of the government. 
The patricians agreed that two of their number should be elected 
as heads of the State. These two magistrates, called consuls, 
who were both to have the same powers, were to serve for a 
year only and then give way to two others. This new state 
was a republic, of which the consuls were the presidents, for the 





B 

Specimens of Early Roman Copper Money 

In the time of Alexander the Great (second half of the fourth century b.c.) 
the Romans found it too inconvenient to continue paying their debts in goods, 
especially in cattle. They therefore cast copper in blocks, each block with 
the figure of an ox upon it (see A, above), to indicate its value. The Roman 
word for cattle (pecus) was the origin of one of their words for property 
(pecunia) and has descended to us in our common word " pecuniary." These 
blocks were unwieldy, and influenced by the Greeks the Romans then cast 
large disks of copper (B, above), which also were very ponderous 

people had a voice in electing them. But as only patricians could 
serve as consuls, their government tended to rouse dissatisfaction 
among the common people (called the plebs, compare our " plebe- 
ian"). The plebs finally refused to submit to the oppression of the 
patricians, and revolted against it, 

185. The Tribunes Defenders of the People. The patricians 
were unable to get on without the help of the people as soldiers 
in their frequent wars. They therefore agreed to give the people 
a larger share in the government by allowing them to elect a 
new kind of officials, called tribunes. These had the right to veto 
the action of any officer of the government — even that of the con- 
suls themselves. When any citizen was treated unjustly by a consul 
he had the privilege of appealing to one of the tribunes. 



122 General History of Europe 

186. Growing Body of Government Officials. It gradually 
became necessary to create new officers for various kinds of 
business. To take care of the government funds treasury officials 
called qucestors were appointed. Officials called censors were re- 
quired to keep lists of the people and to look after their daily con- 
duct and see that nothing improper was permitted. Our own use 
of the word "censor" is derived from these Roman officials. For 
the decision of legal cases judges called prcetors were appointed 
to assist the consuls. In times of great national danger it was 
customary to appoint some revered and trustworthy leader as 
the supreme ruler of the State. He was called the Dictator, but 
he could hold his power for only a brief period. 

187. The Senate and the Struggle of Plebs and Patricians. 
The consuls had great power and influence in all government mat- 
ters, but they were much influenced by a council of patricians 
called the Senate (from Latin, senex, meaning "old man"). The 
patricians enjoyed the exclusive right to serve as consuls, to sit 
in the Senate, and to hold almost all the offices created to carry 
on the business of government. 

The struggle of the common people to win their rights from 
the wealthy and powerful therefore continued. It was a struggle 
like that which we have followed in Athens and the other Greek 
states, but at Rome it reached a much wiser and more successful 
settlement. The citizens of Rome insisted upon having their 
rights, and without civil war or bloodshed they secured them, to 
a large extent, in the course of the first two centuries after the 
founding of the Republic. 

188. The Twelve Tables; Control of Legislation by the 
People. About fifty years after the establishment of the Republic 
the earliest Roman laws were put in writing and engraved upon 
twelve tablets of bronze (450 B.C.). But at the same time the 
people demanded the right to share in the making of new laws. 

The plebs succeeded in shaking off the legal power of the 
Senate to control their action, and the assemblies of the people be- 
came the lawmaking bodies of the Roman State. In this way 
they gradually secured a fairer share of the public lands. Most 



The Western Mediterranean World 123 

important of all, new laws increased the rights of the people to 
hold office. In the end Roman citizens elected their plebeian 
neighbors as censors and quaestors, as judges, and finally even as 
consuls and members of the Senate. 

189. Importance of the Roman Senate. By far the larger 
part of the Roman citizens, however, lived too far away to come 
up to the city and vote. Feeling, too, their own ignorance of 
public affairs, the Roman citizens were not unwilling that impor- 
tant public questions should be settled by the Senate. Thus the 
Roman Senate became a large committee of experienced states- 
men, guiding and controlling the Roman State. They formed the 
greatest council of rulers which ever grew up in the ancient world, 
or perhaps in any age. 

III. The Expansion of the Roman Republic and 
the Conquest of Italy 

190. Early Struggles of the Republic. It was a tiny nation 
which began its uncertain career after the expulsion of the Etrus- 
can kings about 500 B.C. The territory of the Roman Republic 
thus far comprised only the city with the neighboring fields for 
a very few miles around. On the other side of the Tiber lived 
the dreaded Etruscans, and on the Roman side of the river, all 
around the little republic, lived the Latin tribes, only loosely 
united with Rome by treaty. 

Fortunately for the Romans, within a generation after the 
foundation of the Republic the Greek fleet of Syracuse utterly 
destroyed the Etruscan fleet (474 B.C.). Later the Etruscans 
were attacked from the north by the Gauls, who were at this time 
pouring over the Alpine passes into the valley of the Po. This 
weakening of the Etruscans probably saved Rome from destruc- 
tion. By 400 B.C., or a little after, the Romans had conquered 
and taken possession of a frmge of new territory on all sides, 
which protected them from their enemies. 

In this new territory the Romans planted colonies of citizens — 
mostly farmers cultivating the new lands — or granted citizenship 



124 General History of Europe 

or other valuable privileges to the conquered population. From 
the annexed districts Rome could draw an ever-increasing body of 
brave and hardy citizen-soldiers. It was this steady agricultural 
expansion of Rome which in a little over two centuries after the 
expulsion of the Etruscan kings made the little republic on the 
Tiber mistress of all Italy. 

191. Capture of Rome by the Gauls (382 B.C.). The second 
century of Roman expansion opened with a fearful catastrophe, 
which very nearly accomplished the complete destruction of the 
nation. In the 'first two decades after 400 B.C. the barbarian 
Gauls of the North, who had been overrunning the territory of 
the Etruscans, finally reached the lower Tiber, defeated the 
Roman army, and entered the city. Unable, however, to capture 
the citadel on the Capitol Hill, the Gauls at length agreed to 
accept a ransom of gold and to return northward, where they 
settled in the valley of the Po. But they still remained a serious 
danger to the Romans. 

192. Subjugation of the Latin Tribes (338 B.C.). As Rome 
recovered from this disaster it was evident that the city needed 
fortifications, and for the first time masonry walls were built 
around it. Alarmed at Rome's growing power, the Latin tribes now 
endeavored to break away from the control of the powerful walled 
city. In the two years' war which resulted the city was com- 
pletely victorious. Rome thus gained the undisputed leadership 
of the Latin tribes. 

The year 338 B.C., in which this important event took place, 
also witnessed the defeat of the Greek cities at the hands of 
Philip of Macedonia (§153). In the same year, therefore, both 
the Greeks and the Latins saw themselves conquered and falling 
under the leadership of a single state — the Greeks under that of 
Macedonia, the Latins under that of Rome. 

193. Samnite Wars (325-290 B.C.) and the Battle of Senti- 
num (295 B.C.). Meantime another formidable foe, a group of 
Italic tribes called the Samnites, had been taking possession of 
the mountains inland from Rome. By 325 B.C. a fierce war 
broke out between the Romans and the Samnites. It lasted with 



The Western Mediterranean World 125 

interruptions for a generation. The Romans lost several battles, 
but finally crushed the Samnites (295 b.c.) in a fierce battle at 
Sentinum. This victory not only gave the Romans possession 
of central Italy, but it made them the leading power in the whole 
peninsula. 

194. Rome Mistress of Central and Northern Italy. The 
Etruscans were unable to longer maintain themselves as a leading 
power. One by one their cities were taken by the Romans, or they 
entered into alliance with Rome. The intruding Gallic barbarians 
were beaten off, though the Gauls who had settled in the north, 
of the Italian peninsula continued to hold the Po valley. The 
northern boundary of the Roman conquests was therefore along 
the Arnus River, south of the Apennines. The Romans were 
already supreme from the Arnus to the Greek cities of southern 
Italy. 

195. The War with Pyrrhus (280-275 B.C.) and Fall of the 
Greeks in Italy. The remaining three great rivals in the western 
Mediterranean world were now the Romans, the Greek colonists, 
and the Carthaginians. Alarmed at the threatening expansion of 
Roman power the Greek colonies endeavored to unite, and sent 
an appeal for help to Pyrrhus, the vigorous and able king of 
Epirus, just across from Italy. 

Leading a powerful army, Pyrrhus was a highly dangerous foe. 
His purpose was to form a great nation of the western Greeks 
in Sicily and Italy. He completely defeated the Romans in two 
battles. But the Greeks disagreed among themselves, as they 
always did at critical times. Pyrrhus, thus poorly supported, 
found himself unable to inflict a decisive defeat on the Romans 
and returned before long to Epirus. One by one the helpless 
Greek cities of Italy then surrendered to the Roman army, for 
they had no choice but to accept alliance with the Romans. Thus 
ended all hope of a great Greek nation in the West. 

This long period of conquest and expansion extended over about 
two centuries and a quarter (500-275 b.c). Thenceforward there 
were but two rivals in the western Mediterranean world — Rome 
and Carthage. 



Roman Power 
le Samnite 
Wars (290 B.C.) 




Carthage 



J 6 do l(5o 150 
[ Roman Territory 

4 Syracuse 



Expansion of Roman Power in Italy 



The Western Mediterranean World 127 

196. Rome's Allies and Colonies. Having conquered Italy as 
far north as the Po, Rome had to make some arrangement for 
governing her new possessions. She annexed perhaps a sixth of 
the territory to pay her war expenses and supply her citizens with 
land. But many of the defeated cities were granted a sort of half 
citizenship, which entitled them to the full protection of the 
Roman government in their business, but did not permit them to 
vote. Such cities were called allies. In exchange, for the protec- 
tion of the powerful Roman state the allies were willing to place 
their troops at Rome's disposal. Rome also continued her policy 
of founding colonies throughout the conquered territory. So all 
Italy was dotted with such colonies made up of Roman citizens. 

QUESTIONS 

I. Discuss the geography of the western Mediterranean world ; of 
Italy. Who were the Italic tribes? Name the four rival peoples of 
the western Mediterranean world and tell something of each. 

How did Rome originate? Do you know the story of Romulus 
and Remus ? What people furnished the first kings of Rome ? What 
kind of civilization did the Etruscans have ? When were they expelled 
from Rome ? What is a republic and from what does the word come ? 

II. Tell about Greek influences among the Romans. What took 
the place of the expelled Etruscan kings ? What did the government 
of Rome become? How did the people gain power? the Senate? 

III. Describe the Roman policy of expansion. Discuss the war 
with the Gauls ; with the Latins ; with the Samnites ; with the Greeks 
and Pyrrhus. What was the result ? What two rivals remained ? 



CHAPTER X 
ROME AND CARTHAGE 

I. Commercial Power of Carthage ; the First 

Punic War 

197. Development of Business Interests in Rome. Rome's 
conquest of the Greek cities of southern Italy had brought her 
into contact with a far higher civilization than she had previously 
known. She was particularly influenced by Greek business enter- 
prise. For a time the Romans used Greek silver coins, but by 
the year 268 B.C. they began for the first time to issue silver 
coins of their own. Just as had happened in Athens earlier, a 
moneyed class now made its appearance in Rome. This class, 
however, was made up largely of merchants. There was no' 
considerable manufacturing carried on, as at Athens, — Rome 
was a great center of shipping and commerce rather than an 
industrial city. 

198. Commercial Supremacy of Carthage. But when the ever- 
increasing numbers of Roman merchant ships issued from the 
Tiber, they found the western Mediterranean already occupied 
by their great rival Carthage. As the trade of Carthage had 
increased she had extended her control eastward and westward 
along the African coast, and her enterprising merchants had even 
seized southern Spain, with its valuable silver mines. The Car- 
thaginians did not believe in free trade, but proposed to monopo- 
lize all the business they could for themselves. So they closed the 
ports under their control to all foreign ships. Vessels of other 
cities venturing into the western Mediterranean harbors were 
promptly rammed and sunk by Carthaginian warships sent out 
to protect the business of their city. With increasing vexation 



Rome and Carthage 129 

the merchants of Italy realized that the Carthaginians were in a 
position to prevent any great, extension of Roman foreign trade 
and that their rivals held even the markets of Sicily, close to the 
Italian mainland. So after conquering Italy, Rome seemed driven 
on to extend her borders still farther in order to give free play 
to her growing commerce and trade. A deadly conflict between 
Rome and Carthage seemed inevitable. When it came it proved 
a long one, lasting with interruptions for a hundred and eighteen 
years and closing with the complete destruction of the great 
and flourishing African city. The three prolonged wars between 
Rome and Carthage are called the Punic wars (from the Latin 
word Punicus, meaning "Phoenician," the Carthaginians being 
Phoenicians). 

199. Carthage : its Government and Army. Carthage seems 
to have been a very splendid and luxurious city when the wars 
with Rome began. It was in area perhaps three times the size of 
its rival. Its government was in the hands of rich business men, 
who ruled the Carthaginian empire in their own interests. Cen- 
turies of shrewd guidance on their part had built up a great state 
far exceeding in power any of the Greek states, not excepting 
Athens itself. The merchants had to rely on hired soldiers, for 
there seems not to have been any large class of farmers cultivating 
the land, from which Carthage could collect an army of citizen- 
soldiers, .as Rome was able to do. So the forces of Carthage were 
much less trustworthy, no matter how ably led, than those of 
the Roman Republic. 

200. The Roman Army. The Romans could put an army of 
over three hundred thousand men in the field made up of her own 
citizens. She had in addition about an equal number which she 
could draw from her allies (§ 196). The Roman forces far ex- 
ceeded in strength any army ever before organized in the Mediter- 
ranean world. The Romans were, moreover, very dexterous with 
their short swords and javelins as well as with their spears, and 
they had so improved the group formations, phalanxes (§152), 
that they moved about very much more easily than the older ones. 
So the Romans became adepts in the art of war, and this accounts 



13© 



General History of Europe 







for the many victories of their "le- 
gions," as the divisions of the army 
were called. Although the Romans had 
already had long experience in fighting 
on land, they had now to accustom 
themselves to fighting on the sea. It 
took some time for them to learn how 
to build men-of-war and manage them 
effectively. But without a sea power 
they could, of course, make no head- 
way against Carthage. 

201. The Opening of the First 
Punic War (264 B.C.). The Romans 
soon realized that the struggle with 
Carthage could not be avoided. The 
immediate cause of the outbreak of 
the First Punic War was the seizure of 
Messina by a Carthaginian garrison. 
Messina commanded the strait which 
separated the island of Sicily from the 
mainland. This move of the Cartha- 
ginians seemed to be a sort of insult to 
the Romans, who now took a memo- 
rable step. For the first time Roman 
troops went beyond the mainland of 
Italy, crossed the narrow strait, and 
secured a footing in Sicily. The struggle 
with Carthage had begun (264 B.C.). 

202. General Course of the War 
(264-241 B.C.). The Romans were able 
to form an alliance with the famous 
old Greek city of Syracuse and so got 
possession of the eastern part of Sicily, 
but the war proved a very long one, 

lasting nearly a quarter of a century. Five years elapsed before 
the Romans got their first great fleet of one hundred and twenty 




:: 



A Roman Soldier 

The figure of the soldier is 
carved upon a tombstone, 
erected in his memory by 
his brother. His weapons 
are his spear, which he holds 
in his extended right hand 
with point upward, and his 
heavy short sword, which he 
wears girded high on his 
right side. As defensive 
equipment he has a helmet, 
a leathern corselet stopping 
midway between the waist 
and knees, and a shield 



Rome and Carthage 131 

warships ready. In spite of their inexperience in naval fighting 
they gained some victories over their rivals ; but then they had 
much ill fortune, for their ships were either lost in storms or de- 
stroyed by the Carthaginians, and they had to keep building new 
fleets, only to have them destroyed in turn. After twenty years 
the treasury was empty and Rome seemed at the end of its 
resources. Finally, in 242 b.c, a last fleet of two hundred battle- 
ships was built and equipped by private subscriptions of patriotic 
Romans and put to sea. This time the Carthaginian navy was 
defeated and broken up. The Carthaginians were then no longer 
able to transport reinforcements to Sicily and at last were forced 
to make peace on Rome's terms. 

203. End of the First Punic, or Sicilian, War. The Romans 
had suffered much in the long war and imposed very hard condi- 
tions. The Carthaginians were required to give up Sicily and the 
neighboring islands and pay within ten years a huge war indem- 
nity of thirty-two hundred talents, — over three and a half million 
dollars. This was a far larger sum in those days than it would 
be now. For the first time Rome now held territory outside the 
Italian peninsula, and this was but the beginning of a complete 
conquest of the Mediterranean countries. 

II. The War with Hannibal, or Second Punic War 

204. Interval between the First and Second Punic Wars. 
About a quarter of a century elapsed before war between the great 
rivals broke out again. Meanwhile both of them devoted them- 
selves to increasing their strength. Shortly after the close of the 
first war Rome took possession of the large islands of Corsica 
and Sardinia. These, with Sicily, gave her three outposts against 
Carthage. At the same time she completed the conquest of the 
Italian peninsula by conquering the Gauls to the north of the 
river Po and extending her boundaries to the Alps. 

205. Hannibal's Audacious Plan for conquering Rome. To 
offset this increase of Rome's power Carthage turned her atten- 
tion to the conquest of Spain, to which the Romans also laid 



132 General History of Europe 

claim. One of the Carthaginian generals in Spain, Hannibal, a 
young man only twenty-four years of age, determined on the 
bold plan of leading a Carthaginian army around through south- 
ern Gaul and across the Alps into Italy, where he hoped to crush 
Rome by a direct land attack instead of having to rely, as hith- 
erto, on victories by sea. 

206. Opening of the Second Punic War (218B.C.). It was 
late autumn when Hannibal reached the Alps. Overwhelmed 
by snowstorms ; struggling over a steep and dangerous trail, 
sometimes so narrow that the rocks had to be cut away to 
make room for his elephants ; looking down over dizzy precipices, 
or up to snow-covered heights where hostile natives rolled great 
stones down upon the troops, the discouraged army of Hannibal 
toiled on day after day, exhausted, cold, and hungry. At every 
point along the straggling line where help was most needed the 
young Carthaginian was always present, encouraging and guiding 
his men. But when they issued from the Alpine pass and entered 
Italy in the upper valley of the Po, they had suffered such losses 
that they were reduced to some thirty-four thousand men. 

With this little army the dauntless Carthaginian youth had 
entered the territory of the strongest military power of the time — 
a nation which could now call to her defense over seven hundred 
thousand men, citizens and allies. Hannibal, however, was thor- 
oughly acquainted with the most highly developed methods of 
warfare, and the exploits of Alexander a century earlier were 
familiar to him. On the other hand, the Roman consuls, com- 
manding the Roman armies, were simply magistrates like our 
mayors. They were no match for the crafty young Carthaginian. 

207. HannibaPs Early Successes. In spite of his weakened 
army Hannibal began to gain victories over the Roman troops in 
northern Italy and was joined by many of the Gauls whom Rome 
had so recently conquered. On the shores of Lake Trasimene he 
surprised a Roman army under the consul Flaminius, and the 
awful news reached Rome that their army was cut to pieces and 
its leader killed. Hannibal might now have advanced on Rome 
itself, but he had neither the troops nor the machinery for a 



Rome and Carthage 133 

siege and so preferred to wait for another victory in the hope that 
the allies of Rome might be induced to desert her and help him 
besiege the city. 

208. Battle of Cannae (216B.C.). The Romans now appointed 
a Dictator, a prudent old citizen named Fabius. He so irritated 
the Roman people by his caution that he was known as the 
"hesitator," and we still speak of a policy of delay as a Fabian 
policy. Nothing of importance happened for a year, when in 
216 B.C. the newly elected Roman consuls collected an army of 
nearly seventy thousand men and marched southward, where 
Hannibal and his army were operating. 

At Cannre the Romans met one of the most terrible reverses 
in their history. Hannibal managed skillfully to surround their 
army, and what ensued was simply a slaughter of the doomed 
Romans. When night came the Roman army was annihilated. 
Ex-consuls, senators, and thousands of the best citizens of Rome 
had fallen in this frightful battle. Every family in Rome was in 
mourning. Of the gold rings worn by Roman knights as an indi- 
cation of their rank Hannibal is reported to have sent a bushel 
to Carthage. 

209. Hannibal's Statesmanship versus Roman Power. Thus 
this masterful young Carthaginian, within two years after his 
arrival in Italy and before he was thirty years of age, had defeated 
his mighty antagonist. Within a few years southern Italy, in- 
cluding the Greek cities and even Syracuse in Sicily, forsook Rome 
and joined Hannibal. But opposing him was the dogged resolu- 
tion and the seemingly inexhaustible numbers of the Romans. 
It was a battle of giants for mastery, for the victor in this struggle 
would without any question become the greatest power in the 
Mediterranean. In spite of Hannibal's successes, the steadiness 
and fine leadership of the Roman Senate held central Italy loyal 
to Rome. The Romans were finally compelled to include slaves 
and mere boys in the new armies which were formed. With these 
forces the Romans proceeded to besiege and capture, one after 
another, the allied cities which had revolted against Rome and 
joined Hannibal, 



134 General History of Europe 

210. Defeat of Hannibal by Scipio (202 B.C.). For a time 
Hannibal struggled on in southern Italy. Meanwhile the Ro- 
mans, taught by the defeat of their consuls, had given the 
command of their forces in Spain to Scipio, one of the ablest 
of their younger leaders and a trained soldier. He drove the 
Carthaginians entirely out of Spain, thus cutting off their chief 
supply both of money and of troops. In Scipio the Romans had 
at last found a general with the masterful qualities which make 
a great military leader. He demanded of the Senate that he be 
sent to Africa to invade the dominions of Carthage as Hannibal 
had invaded those of Rome. 

By 203 B.C. Scipio had twice defeated the Carthaginian forces 
in Africa, and Carthage was forced to call Hannibal home. He 
had spent fifteen years on the soil of Italy, and the great struggle 
between the almost exhausted rivals was now to be decided in 
Africa. At Zama, inland from Carthage, the final battle of the 
war took place. The great Carthaginian was at last met by an 
equally great Roman, and Scipio won the battle. 

211. Treaty ending the War (201 B.C.); the Fate of Hanni- 
bal. The victory over Carthage made Rome the leading power in 
the whole ancient world. In the treaty which followed the 
battle of Zama the Romans forced Carthage to pay a crushing 
indemnity of ten thousand talents (over $11,000,000) in fifty 
years and to surrender all her warships except ten triremes. But, 
what was worse, she lost her independence as a nation, and 
according to the treaty she could not make war anywhere with- 
out the consent of the Romans. 

Hannibal escaped after he lost the battle at Zama. He was one 
of the greatest and most gifted leaders in all history — a lion- 
hearted man, so strong of purpose that only a great nation like 
Rome could have crushed him. Rome still feared Hannibal and 
compelled the Carthaginians to expel him. As a man of fifty he 
went into exile in the East, where we shall find him stirring up 
the successors of Alexander to combine against Rome (§ 214). 

212. Third Punic War ; Destruction of Carthage ( 146 b. c). 
Cato, a famous old-fashioned senator, was so convinced that 



Rome and Carthage 



r 35 



Carthage was still a danger to Rome that he concluded all his 
speeches in the Senate with the words, " Carthage must be de- 
stroyed." For over fifty years more the merchants of Carthage 
were permitted to traffic in the western Mediterranean, and then 
the ruthless hand of Rome was laid upon the doomed city for the 
last time. 

Rome eagerly seized an excuse to renew hostilities and at- 
tack her old enemy. In the three years' war that followed, 




The Harbors of Carthage as they are Today 

Of the city destroyed by the Romans almost nothing has survived. It was 
rebuilt under Julius Caesar, but, as we see here, very little of this later city 
has survived. Thorough and systematic excavation would probably recover 
many valuable remains of ancient Carthaginian civilization, of which we 

know so little 



the beautiful city was finally captured and utterly destroyed 
(146 b.c). Its territories were taken by Rome and reorganized 
into the Province of Africa. Thus ended the long struggle with 
a complete victory for Rome. 

213. Summary. The struggle of centuries between the original 
four rivals in the western Mediterranean — the Etruscans, Greeks, 
Carthaginians, and Romans — ended in the triumph of the seem- 
ingly weakest of all, the city on the Tiber. Racially the western 
wing of the Indo-Europeans on the north side of the Mediterra- 
nean had proved victorious over the Semitic peoples on the south 



136 General History of Europe 

side. The western Mediterranean world was now under the 
leadership of a single great nation, the Romans. We must now 
turn back and review the relations of Rome with the eastern 
Mediterranean countries, where, as we have seen, civilization had 
developed under Greek influence to an unprecedented height. 

QUESTIONS 

I. How did Carthage interfere with Rome's business interests ? 
Describe the government and territorial extent of Carthage. How was 
the Roman army made up ? Describe the origin and cause of the First 
Punic War. 

II. What was Hannibal's plan for conquering Rome? What were 
the difficulties of his march from Spain to northern Italy? What was 
Hannibal's policy in Italy? How did the Romans succeed in defeat- 
ing Hannibal ? What was the outcome of the Punic Wars ? 



CHAPTER XI 
EXTENSION OF ROMAN DOMINION AND ITS RESULTS 

I. Conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean: New 

Problems 

214. Alexander's Successors conquered by Rome (200- 
168 B.C.). While Rome had been making her conquests in the west- 
ern Mediterranean, and slowly tightening her grip on her great 
rival Carthage, the successors of Alexander the Great had been 
struggling among themselves. It had occurred to Hannibal while 
he was fighting in Italy that he could strengthen himself by 
inducing the king of Macedonia to form an alliance with him 
against Rome. The Romans did not overlook this, and after 
their victory over Hannibal they sent an expedition across to 
Macedonia and defeated its army in the battle of Cynoscephalae, 
in 197 B.C. The country was reduced to the position of a 
vassal of Rome. The Greek cities which had been brought 
under Macedonian control by Philip and Alexander the Great 
(§§ I 53? : 55) were now granted their freedom, but Rome con- 
tinued to keep a strict eye on them. 

This war with Macedonia brought the Romans into conflict 
with Antiochus the Great, the Seleucid king, who held a large part 
of the vast empire of Persia in Asia. A war with this powerful 
Asiatic empire was not a matter which the Romans could view 
without great anxiety. Moreover, Hannibal, a fugitive from 
Carthage, was now with Antiochus, giving him the benefit of his 
ability and long experience in fighting the Romans. Nevertheless 
at Magnesia in Asia Minor the West, led by Rome, overthrew the 
East, led by Antiochus (190 b. c), and the lands of western Asia 
Minor submitted to Roman control. 

l 37 



138 General History of Europe 

Within twelve years (200-189 b.c.) Roman arms had re- 
duced to the condition of vassal states two of the three great 
empires which succeeded Alexander in the East — Macedonia and 
Syria. As for Egypt, the third, it also before long became a 
dependency of Rome (168 B.C.). 

215. Subjection of the Greeks. Although defeated, the east- 
ern Mediterranean world, including the Greeks, long continued 
to give the Romans trouble. Then the Romans began harsh 
measures. The same year which saw the destruction of Carthage 
witnessed also the burning of Corinth by the Romans (146 b.c). 
Those Greek states whose careers of glorious achievement in 
civilization we have followed were all reduced to the condition 
of Roman vassals. 

216. Misgovernment of the Roman Provinces. The Romans 
had certainly shown extraordinary ability in conducting the wars 
that had built up their huge empire, which by this time reached 
all around the Mediterranean. Now they had the great problem 
of organizing a government to rule and control their vast posses- 
sions. Most of the newly acquired territories were organized 
as provinces, each under a Roman governor, who possessed al- 
most unlimited powers. He had complete control of taxation in 
his province and could demand all that he thought necessary for 
his government and troops. These governors were commonly eager 
to make a fortune during their short term of office, usually a single 
year, and their rule often became a mere system of looting and 
robbery. The Senate soon found it necessary to have laws passed 
for the punishment of such evils, but these laws proved of little 
use in improving the conditions. 

The evil effects of this situation were soon apparent. The 
provinces were filled with Roman business men whom we should 
call "loan-sharks." There were contractors called publicans, who 
were allowed to collect the taxes for the State at a great profit. 
We remember the common references to these publicans in the 
New Testament, where they are regularly classified with "sinners." 
These grafters plundered the provinces worse than the greedy 
Roman governors themselves. 




Sequence Map showing the Expansion of the Roman Powej 

to the Death c 



Map II 

Expansion of Human Power 

between the Sicilian and Hannibalian 

Warn with Carthav:.- Ml 118 1.0 J 

Mile* 
100 300 600 




• hajn'nian Power 
3 Macedonian and Solcueid I 
^ Ptolemaic Etr.j 

Jo* 








is Beginning <>f the Wars with Carthage (264 

. J. I'..C.) 



Extension of Roman Dominion and its Results 139 



217. Rise of a Wealthy Class at Rome. As these people 
returned to Italy there grew up a wealthy class such as had been 
unknown there before. Their ability to buy resulted in a vast 
import trade to supply their demands. From the Bay of Naples 
to the mouth of the Tiber 
the sea was white with 
the sails of Roman ships 
converging on the docks 
of Rome. The men who 
controlled this traffic be- 
came wealthy merchants. 
To handle all the money 
in circulation banks were 
required. During the war 
with Hannibal the first 
banks appeared at Rome, 
occupying a line of booths 
on each side of the Forum. 
Under these influences 
Rome greatly changed. 

When a returned gov- 
ernor of Africa put up 
a showy new house, the 
citizen across the way 
who still lived in his 
father's old house began 
to be dissatisfied with it. 
For the old houses were 




An Old Roman Atrium-House 

There was no attempt at beautiful archi- 
tecture, and the bare front showed no 
adornment whatever. The opening in the 
roof, which lighted the atrium, received the 
rainfall of a section of the roof sloping 
toward it, and this water collected in a pool 
built to receive it in the floor of the atrium 
below (see B in cut on page 140) . The tiny- 
area, or garden, shown in the rear was not 
common. It was here that the later Ro- 
mans added the Hellenistic peristyle (see 
D in cut on page 140) 



built of sun-dried brick, 
and, like the settlers' cabins of early America, they had but one 
room, called the atrium (see cut on page 140). The Roman 
citizen of the new age had long before become familiar with 
the comfort, luxury, and beauty with which the Greek houses 
of southern Italy were filled. He therefore soon added a colon- 
naded Hellenistic court, with adjoining dining room, bedrooms, 
library, rest rooms, and kitchen, 



140 



General History of Europe 




218. The New Luxury at Rome. The original atrium was in 
the finer houses converted into a large and stately reception hall, 
where the master of the house could display statues, paintings, 
and other works of art seized in eastern cities. One of the Roman 

conquerors of Mace- 
donia entered Rome on 
D his return with two hun- 

■— 1 AI^ dred and fifty wagon- 

loads of Greek statues 
and paintings. 

The finest Roman resi- 
dences were sometimes 
supplied with running 
water and sanitary con- 
veniences. Some of them 
had a system of heating 
by means of tile pipes 
conducting into the dif- 
ferent rooms the heat 
from a furnace, very 
different from the old 
charcoal brazier on 
which the Romans had 
formerly depended. 

219. Influence of the 
Art and Literature of 
Greece on Rome. The 
cultivated Romans nat- 
urally admired the beau- 
tiful Greek works of art, 
which some of their artists sought to imitate and copy. The 
Greek theater became popular, too, and Roman playwrights, 
like Plautus and Terence, adapted Greek comedies to the taste 
of Roman audiences, who laughed heartily at the old Greek jokes. 
The Romans had formerly done little to educate their children 
in any systematic way. Now schools began to appear, frequently 



Plan of a Roman House with Peristyle 

The earliest Roman house had consisted of a 
single room, the atrium (A), with the pool 
for the rain water {B) . Then a small alcove, 
or lean-to, was erected at the rear (C), as a 
room for the master of the house. Later the 
bedrooms on each side of the atrium were 
added. Finally, under the influence of Greek 
life, the garden court (£>), with its surround- 
ing colonnaded porch (peristyle) and a foun- 
tain in the middle (£), was built at the 
rear. Then a dining room, sitting room, and 
bedrooms were added, which opened on this 
court, and, being without windows, they were 
lighted from the court through the doors. In 
town houses it was quite easy to partition 
off a shop, or even a whole row of shops, 
along the front or side of the house, as in the 
Hellenistic house. The houses of Pompeii 
(see § 262 and Plate III, facing page 168) were 
almost all built in this way 



Extension of Roman Dominion and its Results 141 

conducted by Greeks. A Latin translation of Homer was often used 
as a textbook, and in this way Roman children learned something 
of the legends of Troy and of the wily Odysseus. Roman writers 
also set down the picturesque legends of early Rome and of its 
founding by Romulus and Remus. A Roman general brought 
back the books collected by the Macedonian king and founded 
the first private library in Rome. Wealthy and cultivated Romans 
now began to provide special rooms in their houses for books, 
and they often read and spoke Greek almost as well as Latin. 

II. Signs of Degeneration in Town and Country 

220. Gladiators and Races. Some of the old-fashioned Romans 
were greatly worried by the new luxury. Laws were passed to 
check it, but they amounted to little. During the Carthaginian 
wars there had been introduced an old Etruscan custom of single 
combats between condemned criminals or slaves, who fought to 
honor the funeral of some great Roman. These fighters came to 
be called "swordsmen" (gladiators, from a Latin word gladius, 
meaning "sword"). Officials in charge of the various public 
feasts, without waiting for a funeral, used to arrange a long 
program of such combats, sure of pleasing the people, gaining 
their votes, and thus securing election to higher offices. These 
barbarous and bloody spectacles took place in a great stone 
structure called an amphitheater. Combats between gladiators 
and wild beasts were finally introduced. The Romans also began 
to build enormous race tracks for chariot races (called circuses), 
surrounded by seats for vast numbers of spectators. 

221. Political Corruption. The Roman politician now sought 
office chiefly with the hope of finally gaining the governorship of a 
province. There he might hope to retrieve his campaign expenses 
and make himself rich for life. The aspirant to office naturally 
took advantage of the habit that had grown up of distributing 
grain and bread among the poorer people, and sought, as the 
expression was, to make himself solid with the voters by means 
of "bread and circuses." There appears also to have been a great 



142 General History of Europe 

deal of political bribery, and the laws directed against it seem to 
have had little effect in checking it. 

222. Growth of Great Estates; Decline of Small Farms. 
The evils of the new wealth were not less evident outside of 
Rome. It was not thought proper for a Roman senator or noble to 
engage in any business. The most respectable form of wealth was 
land. Hence the successful Roman noble or capitalist bought 
farm after farm, which he combined into a great estate or planta- 
tion. Only here and there were still to be found groups of little 
homestead farms of the old Roman days. The small farm seemed 
in a fair way to disappear. 

223. Slave Revolts and Disorders. It was impossible for a 
wealthy landowner to work these great estates with free, hired 
labor. Nor was he obliged to do so. From the close of Hanni- 
bal's war onward the Roman conquests had brought to Italy 
great numbers of captives of war. These unhappy prisoners were 
sold as slaves. The estates of Italy were now filled with them. 
The life of slaves on the great plantations was little better than 
that of beasts. When the supply of captives from the wars failed, 
slave pirates for many years carried on wholesale kidnaping in 
the iEgean and eastern Mediterranean. 

Thus Italy and Sicily were fairly flooded with slaves. The 
brutal treatment which they received was so unbearable that at 
various places in Italy they finally rose against their masters. 
In central and southern Sicily the revolting slaves gathered some 
sixty thousand in number, slew their masters, captured towns, 
and set up a kingdom. It required a Roman consul at the head 
of an army and a war lasting several years to subdue them. ' 

224. Evil Influences of the Long Wars of Conquest. Slave 
labor and the great wars were meantime further ruining the small 
farmers of Italy. Never has there been an age in which the terri- 
ble and desolating results of war have more tragically revealed the 
awful cost of military glory. Fathers and elder sons had been 
absent from home for years, holding their posts in the legions, 
fighting the battles which had brought Rome her great position 
as mistress of the world. The mothers, left to bring up the 



Extension of Roman Dominion and its Results 143 

younger children alone, saw the family scattered and drifting 
away from the little farm, till it was left forsaken. 

225. Influx to the Cities. Too often as the returning soldier 
approached the spot where he was born he no longer found the 
house that had sheltered him in childhood. His family was gone, 
and his little farm, sold for debt, had been bought up by some 
wealthy Roman of the city. He cursed the rich men who had got 
possession of his land, and wandered up to the great city to look 
for free grain from the government, to enjoy the games and 
circuses, and to increase the poor class already there. 

226. The Difficulties confronting Rome after she had gained 
World Power. The failure of the Roman Senate to organize a 
successful government for the empire they had conquered had 
brought the whole world of Mediterranean civilization danger- 
ously near destruction. In the European background beyond 
the Alpine frontiers there were rumblings of vast movements 
among the Northern barbarians, threatening to descend as of old 
and completely overwhelm the civilization which for over three 
thousand years had been slowly built up by Orientals and Greeks 
and Romans in the Mediterranean world. 

We stand at the point where the civilization of the Hellenistic 
world began to decline, after the destruction of Carthage and 
Corinth (146 B.C.). We are now to watch the Roman people 
struggling with three difficult and dangerous problems at the 
same time: first, the deadly internal hostility which we have seen 
growing up between rich and poor ; second, the question of organ- 
izing a successful Roman government of the Mediterranean world 
while the dangerous internal struggle was going on ; and third, in 
the midst of these grave responsibilities, the invasions of the bar- 
barian hordes of the North. In spite of all these threatening dan- 
gers we shall see Rome gaining the needed organization which 
enabled it to hurl back the barbarians, to hold the northern 
frontiers for five hundred years, and thus to shield the civilization 
which had cost mankind so many centuries of slow progress — 
the civilization which, because it was so preserved by the Roman 
Empire, has become our own inheritance today. 



144 



General History of Europe 



QUESTIONS 

I. Recall the partition of Alexander's empire after his death. What 
portions of Alexander's empire were conquered by the Romans ? What 
difficulties did the Romans meet in governing their provinces ? De- 
scribe the origin and habits of the wealthy class which now developed. 

II. What were the new forms of public amusement which appeared 
at Rome? Compare political corruption among the Romans with that 
of today. What were the evil influences of the long wars of conquest ? 
Why did the people leave the country for the cities ? What problems 
confronted the Roman government as a result of their conquests ? 




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Note. This illustration shows the beautiful stone sarcophagus of one of the early 
Scipios, found in the family tomb on the Appian Way. It is adorned with details of 
Greek architecture, which clearly indicate that it was done by a Greek artist. Verses 
in early Latin, on the side of the sarcophagus, contain praises of the departed Scipio. 



CHAPTER XII 

A CENTURY OF REVOLUTION AND THE END OF THE 
ROMAN REPUBLIC (133-30 B.C.) 

I. The Struggle between Senate and People 

227. The Gracchi and their Attempted Reforms (133-121 B.C.). 
The crying needs of the farmer class in Italy failed to produce 
any effect on the blinded and selfish aristocrats who made up 
the Roman Senate. But the people found a leader in Tiberius 
Gracchus, the grandson of Scipio the hero of Zama. Elected 
tribune in 133 b.c., he was wont with passionate eloquence to 
remind the people of their wrongs. "You fight and die to give 
wealth and luxury to others. You are called the masters of the 
world, yet there is no clod of earth that you can really call 
your own." Tiberius Gracchus brought a law before the Assem- 
bly providing for a redistribution of the public lands and the 
protection of the farming class. But the Senate regarded him 
as a dangerous agitator, and he was slain by a mob of senators 
who rushed from their meeting place and attacked him and his 
supporters. This murderous deed was the prelude to a century 
of struggle between the leaders of the Senate and those of the 
people, which finally destroyed the Republic and led to the 
establishment of the Empire. 

Ten years later Gaius, the brother of Tiberius Gracchus, under- 
took to force through similar reforms in behalf of the farmers 
and to reduce the power of the Senate. He too was killed in a 
riot. In spite of their failure these two brothers won enduring 
fame in their efforts to improve the lot of the people at large. 

228. Marius, the People's Commander. The Gracchi had 
taught the people to look up to a leader, and this tendency was 
the beginning of the one-man power which was to develop in the 

MS 



146 General History of Europe 

Roman Empire. The people now selected a military commander, 
for they saw that they must have an army to enforce their claims. 
Marius, whom they chose, was himself a man of the people and 
had once been a plowboy. It was fortunate that he had military 
ability, for two powerful German tribes, the Cimbrians and the 
Teutons, had crossed the northern frontiers of the Roman Em- 
pire and had defeated several Roman armies sent against them. 
Marius was able, however, to overwhelm and nearly destroy 
the German hosts in two battles in southern Gaul (102 B.C.). 
So a man of the people saved Rome from this new danger. 

In order to increase his army Marius gave up the old habit of 
allowing only men of property to serve, and he took in the poor 
and penniless. These men became professional soldiers, and it was 
clear that the old days when Rome had relied on her citizens to 
defend her had passed. 

229. The Senate chooses Sulla as its Defender. The 
Senate now set up a rival to Marius, Sulla, and gave him com- 
mand of an army to be sent to fight in Asia Minor. But the 
people refused to agree to this and elected Marius as head of the 
expedition. Sulla then summoned his troops, marched on Rome, 
and took the city by force. 

230. Revenge of Marius and his Death (86 B.C.). The Senate 
had triumphed, but after the departure of Sulla and his legions the 
people refused longer to submit. Marius, having entered Rome 
with troops, began a frightful massacre of the leading men of the 
senatorial party. The Senate, the first to sow seeds of violence 
in the murder of Tiberius Gracchus, now reaped a fearful harvest. 
Meantime Marius died (86 B.C.), but the leaders of the people 
ruled in Rome until the day of reckoning, which was sure to come 
on the return of Sulla. 

231. Sulla gives the Senate Supreme Leadership (82-79 B.C.). 
Having spent several years carrying on a victorious campaign in 
Asia Minor, Sulla returned. On the way his army defeated the 
armies of the people, one after another, and Sulla entered Rome 
as master of the State, without any legal power to justify such 
mastery. By means of his troops he forced his own appointment 



A Century of Revolution 147 

as Dictator (82 B.C.). His first action was to begin the system- 
atic slaughter of the leaders of the people's party and the confis- 
cation of their property. Then he forced the passage of a whole 
series of new laws which deprived the Assembly and the tribunes 
of their power and gave the supreme leadership of the State to 
the Senate. 

II. Overthrow of the Republic ; Pompey and Cesar 

232. The People elect Pompey as their Leader. Some years 
later Sulla, who was a cruel and heartless defender of the aristo- 
cratic Senate, died, and the people began an agitation for the 
repeal of the laws which deprived them and their tribunes of all 
control over the government. They elected Pompey, a former 
officer of Sulla's, as their leader, and he became consul in 70 B.C. 
He managed to get the obnoxious laws repealed and gained a 
great reputation for himself by attacking and destroying the 
pirates who preyed on Roman commerce. He also gained victories 
in Asia Minor and Syria, where he crushed the remnants of the 
old kingdom of the Seleucids. Syria, including Palestine, became 
a Roman province. 

233. Rise of Julius Caesar. Meanwhile a new popular hero and 
opponent of the senatorial party had arisen in Rome, a nephew 
of Marius, Julius Caesar, born in the year 100 b.c. On Pompey's 
return Caesar sided with him, and with his support managed to 
be elected consul for the year 59 b.c. Caesar aspired to become 
the head of the State and introduce many necessary reforms. 
But he had to have an army and so secured the appointment as 
governor of Gaul, much of which was still unconquered by the 
Romans. 

234. Caesar's Conquest of Gaul. Caesar took charge of his 
new province in 58 b.c, and in the following eight years proved 
himself to be a commander of distinguished ability. He subdued 
the Gauls and conquered their territory from the Rhine westward 
to the ocean and the English Channel. He even crossed the 
Channel and invaded Britain as far as the Thames. He added 



148 



General History of Europe 



a vast dominion to the Roman Empire, comprising in general the 
territory of modern France and Belgium. We should not forget 
that his conquest brought Latin into France, and it is from Latin 
that modern French has developed. 

Caesar believed that Rome needed an able commander with an 
army behind him, who should make himself the permanent master 

of the Roman government and 
subdue all other competitors. He 
therefore steadily pursued this aim. 
One of his cleverest moves was the 
publication of a history of his cam- 
paigns in Gaul, which he had found 
time to write in the midst of dan- 
gerous marches and critical battles. 
Although it is one of the greatest 
works of Latin prose, the book was 
really a political pamphlet, in- 
tended to tell the Roman people 
the story of the vast conquests 
which they owed to their governor 
in Gaul. At present it is the best- 
known Latin reading book for 
beginners in that language. 

235. Pompey decides to support 
the Senate. The senators dreaded 
Caesar's return and probable reelec- 
tion as consul. So they induced 
Pompey to desert the people's party and support the cause of the 
Senate. This led to a struggle between the two commanding gen- 
erals, Caesar and Pompey. The Senate ordered Caesar to disband his 
army, but instead of obeying he led it across the little river Rubicon, 
which formed the southern boundary of his province, and marched 
on Rome. Pompey and the Senate were unprepared for this, and 
many of the senatorial party with their general decided to retire 
to Greece. Caesar was elected consul and so could become the 
legal defender of Rome against the Senate and Pompey's army. 




Bust said to be a Portrait of 
Julius Cesar 

The ancient portraits commonly 

accepted as those of Julius Caesar 

are really of uncertain identity 



A Century of Revolution 149 

236. Caesar defeats Pompey (49-48 B.C.). Pompey had the 
advantage in the struggle,, for he controlled the resources of his 
conquests in the East and still had the fleet with which he had 
suppressed the pirates. Nevertheless Csesar managed to get his 
army across to Epirus (see map, p. 138) and accepted battle 
with Pompey on the famous field of Pharsalus in Thessaly. Here 
Pompey was crushingly defeated (48 B.C.), and his army sur- 
rendered itself to Csesar. 

237. Caesar completes the Conquest of the Mediterranean 
World (48-45 B.C.). Pompey then escaped into Egypt, where he 
was basely murdered. Caesar, following Pompey to Egypt, found 
ruling there the beautiful Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemies. 
The charms of this remarkable queen appear to have captivated 
the great Roman. 

We know little of the campaign by which Caesar next over- 
threw his opponents in Asia Minor. It was from there that 
he sent his famous report to the Senate : " I came, I saw, I con- 
quered" (Veni, vidi, vici). The only other obstacles to Caesar's 
complete control of the empire of the Roman world were all 
disposed of by March, 45 B.C., a little over four years after he 
had first taken possession of Italy with his army. 

238. Caesar's Reforms and Plans for the Future. Caesar was 
a great statesman. He used his power with moderation and 
humanity. From the first he had taken great pains to show 
that his methods were not those of the bloody Sulla. It is clear that 
he intended his own position to be that of a Hellenistic sovereign 
like Alexander the Great. Nevertheless he was too wise a states- 
man to abolish at once the outward forms of the Republic. He 
made his power seem legal by having himself made Dictator for 
life, and he assumed also the powers of the other leading offices 
of the state. 

Caesar undertook the task of reshaping the Roman Empire. 
He reformed the Senate, which had long been an evil influence 
in public affairs, and began far-reaching reforms in the corrupt 
administration of the government. He sketched vast plans for 
rebuilding Rome itself ; he laid out new roads to facilitate travel 



i5o 



General History of Europe 



throughout the great empire. He put an end to centuries of 
inconvenience which had resulted from^the use of the old-fashioned 
calendar based on the moon-month, and introduced the Egyptian 
calendar. Our month of July (Latin, Julius) is named after him. 
In short, it is not too much to say that he really established 
the Roman Empire and was its first emperor in fact if not 
in name. 

239. Murder of Caesar (44 B.C.). But there were still men in 
Rome who were not ready to submit to the rule of one man. On 





Coin of Brutus 

The above cut shows us the two sides of a coin issued by Brutus, one of 
the leading assassins of Julius Caesar. On one side the coin bears the head of 
Brutus, accompanied by his name and the title Imperator, that is, general 
(abbreviated to IMP). On the other side are two daggers, intended to 
recall the assassination of Caesar, and between them appears the cap of liberty, 
to suggest the liberty which the Romans supposedly gained by his murder. 
In order that the meaning of all this might be perfectly clear, there appears, 
below, the inscription EID MAR, which means the Ides of March (the 
Roman term for the fifteenth of March), the date of Caesar's murder 



the fifteenth of March, 44 B.C., three days before the date 
arranged for his departure on a great campaign beyond the 
Euphrates, these men struck down the greatest of the Romans. 
If some of his murderers, like Brutus and Cassius, fancied them- 
selves patriots overthrowing a tyrant, they little understood how 
vain were all such efforts to restore the ancient Republic. World 
dominion and its military power had destroyed forever the Roman 
Republic and its old democratic government. The murder of 
Caesar had the most unhappy effects and again plunged Italy and 
the Empire into civil war. 



A Century of Revolution 



151 



III. Triumph of Augustus and End of the 
Civil Wars 

240. How Octavian (Caesar Augustus) made himself Head 
of Rome. Julius had adopted his grandnephew Octavian and had 
made him his sole heir. At the time of Caesar's assassination he 
was only eighteen years old and 
was quietly pursuing his studies 
in Illyria. His mother sent him 
word of his uncle's death and 
urged him to flee eastward as fast 
as possible. Instead of this he 
started for Rome and began skill- 
fully to gather up the threads of 
the tangled situation in his clever 
fingers. In spite of his youth and 
inexperience, he managed to find 
supporters and secure a military 
command, so that two years after 
Caesar's murder he was able to de- 
feat his enemies, including Caesar's 
assassins, in the battle of Philippi 
(42 B.C.). During the following 
ten years he was able to make 
his position stronger and stronger, 
and at the age of twenty-eight he had gained almost complete 
control over both the eastern and western portions of the Empire. 
241. Octavian, Mark Antony, and Cleopatra. Octavian's last 
struggle was with his former friend and supporter Mark Antony, 
who, having fought in the east, had become infatuated with the 
charming Egyptian queen, Cleopatra. Antony was now living in 
Alexandria and Antioch, where he ruled like an oriental monarch. 
It was reported to Octavian that Antony and Cleopatra were 
planning to make themselves rulers of Rome. Accordingly Oc- 
tavian induced the Senate to declare war on Cleopatra, and thus 
he was able to advance against Antony. As Caesar and Pompey, 




Portrait of Augustus, now 

in the Boston Museum of 

Fine Arts 



152 General History of Europe 

representing the West and the East, had once faced each other 
on a battlefield in Greece (§ 236), so now Octavian and Antony, 
the leaders of the West and the East, met at Actium on the west 
coast of Greece. The outcome was a sweeping victory for the 
heir of Caesar (31 B.C.). 

The next year Octavian landed in Egypt. Antony, probably 
forsaken by Cleopatra, took his own life. The proud queen, un- 
willing to be displayed at Octavian 's triumph at Rome, died by 
her own hand. She was the last of the Ptolemies (§ 165), the rulers 
of Egypt for nearly three hundred years. Octavian therefore made 
Egypt Roman territory (30 b.c). To the West, which he already 
controlled, Octavian had now added also the East. Thus he had 
restored the unity of Roman dominions. The entire Mediterranean 
world was under the power of a single ruler. 

242. Summary. The struggle between the rich and the poor, 
which resulted in violence under the Gracchus brothers after 
133 B.C., was accompanied by the rise of military leaders, who 
gained great power and wealth in the newly conquered posses- 
sions. They strove to control the State in defiance of the laws. 
Years of civil war between the leaders of the people and the Senate 
resulted in the overthrow of the Republic (about 30 b.c). Octa- 
vian's success marked the final triumph of one-man power in the 
entire ancient world, as it had long ago triumphed in the Orient. 
The century of strife which Octavian's victory ended was now 
followed by two centuries of peace. These were the first two 
centuries of the Roman Empire, beginning in 30 B.C. 

QUESTIONS 

I. Describe the aims and fate of the Gracchi. Describe the con- 
test between Marius and Sulla. What was Sulla's policy after the death 
of Marius ? 

II. Describe the career of Pompey. How did Julius Caesar prepare 
the way for his dictatorship ? Trace the struggle between Caesar and 
Pompey. How did Caesar complete the conquest of the Mediterranean 
world ? What were his reforms and plans ? 

III. How did Caesar Augustus make himself head of Rome ? 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE ROMAN EMPIRE: TWO CENTURIES OF PEACE FROM 
AUGUSTUS TO MARCUS AURELIUS 

I. The Age of Augustus (30 b.c.-a.d. 14) 

243. Origin of the Roman Empire. When Octavian returned 
to Italy there was a general impression that peace had at last 
come after a hundred years of revolution, civil war, and devasta- 
tion. The great majority of Romans now felt that an individual 
ruler was necessary for the control of the vast Roman dominions. 
There was, therefore, no further opposition to Octavian, and he 
devoted the remaining forty-four years of his life to giving the 
Roman Empire the efficient organization and good government 
which it had so long lacked. 

The Senate conferred upon him the title of Augustus, that is, 
" the august " ; but his chief official title was Princeps, that is, 
"the first," meaning the first of the citizens. Another title 
given the head of the Roman Empire was an old word for com- 
mander or general ; namely, Imperator, from which our word 
"emperor" is derived. Augustus, as we may now call Octavian, 
regarded his position as that of an official of the Roman Republic, 
elected by the Senate and the people. 

The Roman Empire, which here emerges, was thus under a 
double government of the Senate and of the Princeps, whom we 
commonly call the emperor. The emperor was, however, the real 
ruler, because as general he had the legions at his command. So 
the Roman Republic tended to become a military monarchy, as 
we shall see. 

244. The Army and the Frontiers. Augustus seems to have 
thought that the Roman Empire was quite large enough, and he 

r 53 



154 General History of Europe 

did not advocate any further conquests. It was bounded on the 
south by the Sahara Desert and on the west by the Atlantic. 
The Euphrates River was established as the frontier on the east, 
and the Danube and Rhine on the north. 

For the defense of these frontiers it was necessary to maintain 
a large standing army — on the average probably two hundred 
and twenty-five thousand men. The troops were recruited chiefly 
from the Roman provinces. Henceforth the legions were posted 
far out on the boundaries, and the citizens in Italy saw few 
troops except the emperor's bodyguard. 

245. Great Task of organizing the Empire. Augustus faced 
the task of providing a newer and better government for all the 
various peoples and nations that made up the Empire. The selec- 
tion of the governors of the provinces was almost wholly in his 
hands, and the governors knew that they were responsible to him 
for the wise and honest performance of their duties. Each gov- 
ernor also knew that if he proved successful he would be permitted 
to retain his post for years or be promoted to a better one. 

The whole Mediterranean world now entered upon a period of 
peace and prosperity. Formerly the various peoples had been 
accustomed to fight one another, but now the Roman peace en- 
veloped them all. The threads of our historical narrative have 
hitherto been numerous as we followed the stories of Egypt, 
Babylonia, Assyria, Persia, Athens, Macedonia, Rome, and Car- 
thage. With the exception of the regions east of the Euphrates 
these separate strands now become twisted together into the 
single thread of history, that of the Roman Empire. 

246. The Rebuilding of Rome. Augustus also undertook to 
rebuild Rome and make it the most magnificent city of the world. 
He remodeled several private houses into a mansion for his own 
use. From this royal residence, which was on the Palatine Hill, 
our English word "palace" is derived. 

The palace looked down upon an imposing array of new marble 
buildings surrounding the ancient Forum. The finest of these was 
the magnificent business hall (basilica) erected by Julius Caesar 
and restored and completed by Augustus. On the north of the 




The Roman Forum and its Public Buildings in the Early Empire 

(After Luckenbach) 

We look across the ancient market place (F) to the Tiber with its ships. 
On each side of the market place, where we see the buildings (E, J, and D, 
G, I), were once rows of little wooden booths for selling meat, fish, and 
other merchandise. During the period which followed the beginning of the 
Carthaginian wars these were gradually displaced by fine buildings, like the 
basilica hall (D), built not long after 200 B.C. 






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The Roman Empire at its Height 



155 



old Forum Caesar had constructed another business center, called 
the Forum of Caesar; but the growing business of the city led 
Augustus to build a third forum, known as the Forum of Augus- 
tus, which he placed next to that of Caesar (see Ancient Times, 




Map of Rome under the Emperors 

Fig. 247). The first stone theater in Rome had been built by 
Pompey. Augustus erected a larger and more magnificent one. 
247. Books and Writers of Augustus's Time. It was during 
the life of Augustus that the writing of Latin reached its highest 
perfection. The Romans did little in science, and their art was an 
imitation of Greek models. As writers they were also dominated 
by the Greeks, and literary men often studied in Athens and spoke 
Greek among themselves when they returned to Italy. In the 
age before Augustus, Cicero, a lawyer, statesman, and remarkable 



156 



General History of Europe 



orator, had done much to perfect the Latin tongue in his speeches 
and orations. Late in life he was forced to retire from active life 
and spent several years writing out, in Latin, treatises on duty, 
friendship, old age, and the gods, which have been read with 
pleasure ever since. While they owed much to Greek works, they 




"Altar of Augustan Peace" 

The above cut shows a restoration of a magnificent marble inclosure con- 
taining the "Altar of Augustan Peace," erected by order of the Senate in 
honor of Augustus. The inclosure was open to the sky, and its surrounding 
walls, of which portions still exist, are covered below by a broad band of 
ornamental plant spirals, very sumptuous in effect. Above it is a series of 
reliefs, of which the one on the right of the door pictures the legendary hero 
JEne&s bringing an offering to the temple of the Roman household gods 
(Penates) which he carried from Troy to Latium 

are so beautifully and elegantly expressed that they came to be 
regarded as models of Latin prose and are still used in our 
schools and colleges where Latin is studied. 

Latin poetry appeared a generation later than Cicero, after 
Augustus had established peace and begun to encourage men of 
letters to make his reign famous by their works. Horace was 
particularly proud of having been able to introduce the various 
Greek rhythms into Latin. He wrote gay and sometimes sad little 
poems about human joys and loves and ambitions, which are still 
quoted by those fond of Latin. Virgil, the most beloved of Latin 
writers through the ages, described country life in his earlier 



The Roman Empire at its Height 157 

poems and then wrote his immortal iEneid, — a sort of continua- 
tion of the Iliad, — in which he describes the fall of Troy, the 
coming to Italy of .Eneas, whom he represented as the ancestor of 
the Csesars. Livy wrote his great history of Rome, from which 
we get a large part of our information in regard to the develop- 
ment of the Roman State down to his time. 

II. Successors of Augustus: Policy of Trajan 

and Hadrian 

248. Death of Augustus; his Successors. Augustus died 
a.d. 14. There was no law providing for the line of succession 
in the Empire. As Augustus had no male heir, he had asked the 
Senate to associate with him in the government his stepson 
Tiberius, an able soldier who succeeded him. The chief thing 
to be noted in his reign is that he no longer allowed the Roman 
populace to go through the farce of approving what the emperor 
had already decided upon ; so even the appearance of government 
by the Roman people disappeared forever. We can mention 
only a very few of the Roman emperors who succeeded Tiberius. 
Some of them were good and efficient; some of them followed 
careers of vice and wickedness. Of the latter class Nero (a.d. 
54-68) is the worst example. He is accused of having his wife and 
mother and his old teacher, Seneca, killed and of setting fire to 
Rome in order to witness the spectacle and have the pleasure of 
rebuilding the town. There is no evidence that he really com- 
mitted this crime. He pUt the blame for it on the Christians, 
who were now beginning to appear in Rome, and had many of 
them executed with horrible tortures. So Nero's name has come 
down to us as one of the blackest in history. A revolt' in the 
army finally caused him to commit suicide. 

After Nero's death there was a struggle between rival candi- 
dates for the throne, and Vespasian, an able general, finally won 
in the year 69 of the Christian Era. With him began a century of 
general peace under good and efficient rulers who brought the 
Empire to its highest point of prosperity and general content. 



158 



General History of Europe 



249. Protection of the Empire. We have seen that on the 
north and east the Roman Empire was open to attack. Owing to 
the pressure of the German barbarians, civilization was constantly 
in danger. Vespasian and his sons did much to make the northern 
boundary safe by building walls and fortifications along the 




The Emperor Trajan sacrificing at his New Bridge 
across the danube 

In the background we see the heavy stone piers of the bridge, supp 
the wooden upper structure, built with strong railings. In the foregrou. d 
is the altar, toward which the emperor advances from the right, with a flat 
dish in his right hand, from which he is pouring a libation. At the left 
of the altar stands a priest, naked to the waist and leading an ox to be 
slain for the sacrifice. A group of the emperor's officers approach from the 
left, bearing army standards. The scene is sculptured with many others on 
the column of Trajan at Rome, and is one of the best examples of Roman 
relief sculpture of the second century 



frontier. But on the lower Danube they were unable to crush the 
growing power of the Dacians (see map, p. 160). 

250. Trajan (a.d. 98-117) and his Wars. This left the whole 
threatening situation on the lower Danube to be met by the bril- 
liant soldier Trajan. He captured one stronghold of the Dacians 
after another, and finally destroyed their capital. Having built a 
massive bridge across the Danube, Trajan made Dacia a Roman 



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THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

AT ITS GREATEST EXTENT 
(Under Trajan, A. D. 98-117) 

ipo 200 300 400 Eqo 600 ^qo 

Scale of Miles. 



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The Roman Empire at its Height 159 

province and sprinkled plentiful Roman colonies on the north 
side of the great river. The descendants of these colonists in this 
region still call themselves Rumanians and their land Rumania, 
a form of the word "Roman." 

Trajan then turned his attention to the eastern frontier, where 
a large portion of the boundary was formed by the upper Eu- 
phrates River. Rome thus held the western half of the Fertile 
Crescent, but it had never conquered the eastern half, including 
Assyria and Babylonia, which was held by the powerful kingdom 
of the Parthians. Trajan, emulating Alexander the Great, at- 
tempted to add this region to the Empire, but he failed and died 
a bitterly disappointed man. 

251. Hadrian (a.d. 117-138) completes the Frontier Defenses. 
Trajan's successor, Hadrian, was also an able soldier. He had, 
moreover, the judgment of a statesman. He made no effort to con- 
tinue Trajan's conquests in the East, but, on the contrary, wisely 
brought the frontier back to the Euphrates. He retained Dacia, 
however, and strengthened the whole northern frontier, especially 
the long barrier reaching from the Rhine to the Danube, where 
the completion of a continuous wall was largely due to him. He 
built a similar wall along the northern boundary across Britain. 
The lines of both these walls are still visible. As a result of the 
wise measures of Hadrian and the impressive victories of Trajan, 
the frontiers were safe and quiet for a long time. 

252. The Army under Trajan and Hadrian. Drawn from all 
parts of the Empire, the army now consisted of many different 
nationalities, like the British army in the recent World War. A 
legion of Spaniards might be stationed on the Euphrates, or a 
group of youths from the Nile might spend years in sentry duty 
on the wall that barred out the Germans. The army posts were 
equipped with fine barracks and living quarters for officers and 
men. The discipline was never relaxed, for the troops had always 
to be ready to meet any attack from the barbarian Germans who 
lived beyond the walls. 

253. Improvements in Government. Meantime the Empire 
had been undergoing important changes within. The emperors 



i6o 



General History oj Europe 



developed a system of government departments, headed by experi- 
enced ministers, such as we have in modern states. It was the 
wise and efficient Hadrian who accomplished the most in perfect- 
ing this organization of the government business. 

Among many changes, one of the most important was the 
abolition of the system of "farming" taxes, — that is, allowing 
them to be collected by private individuals for profit, — a system 




Restoration of the Roman Fortified Wall on the 
German Frontier 

This masonry wall, some three hundred miles long, protected the northern 
boundary of the Roman Empire between the upper Rhine and the upper 
Danube, where it was most exposed to German attack. At short intervals 
there were blockhouses along the wall, and at points of great danger strong- 
holds and barracks for the shelter of garrisons 



which had caused both the Greeks and the Romans much trouble. 
Government collectors now everywhere gathered in the taxes of 
the great Mediterranean world. 

254. Rise of a System of Law for the Whole Empire. Not 
only did the subjects of this vast State pay their taxes into the 
same treasury but they were controlled by the same laws. The 
lawyers of Rome under the emperors we are now discussing 
were the most gifted legal minds the world had ever seen. They 
altered the narrow city -law of Rome so that it might meet the 
needs of the whole empire. In spirit these laws were fair, just, 



The Roman Empire at its Height 161 

and humane and did much to unify the peoples of the Mediter- 
ranean world into a single nation ; for they were now regarded 
by the law not as different nations but as subjects of the same 
great State, which extended to them all the same protection of 
justice, law, and order. 

III. Civilization of the Roman Empire 

255. The Peoples of the Roman Empire. The number of 
inhabitants of the vast Roman Empire is supposed to have been 
somewhere between sixty-five and a hundred million. We have 
no exact statistics. It included the most varied peoples, — Italians, 
Greeks, Gauls, Iberians (Spaniards), some Britons and Germans, 
Moors, North Africans, Egyptians, Arabs, Jews, Phoenicians, Syr- 
ians, Armenians, and Hittites, to mention only the more impor- 
tant. All these peoples differed from one another in their native 
manners, customs, and dress, but they could all rejoice in the 
far-reaching Roman peace and protection. For the most part 
they lived in cities ; like our own day, it was an age of city life. 

256. Excellent Roman Roads. Everywhere the magnificent 
Roman roads, smoothly paved with massive stone like a town 
street, led straight over the hills and across the rivers by impos- 
ing bridges. Some of these bridges still stand and are in use 
today. The speed of travel and communication was fully as 
high as that maintained in Europe and America a century ago, 
before the introduction of the steam railway, and the roads were 
much better. By sea a Roman merchant could send a letter to his 
agent in Alexandria in ten days. The huge government grain ships 
that plied regularly between the Roman harbors and Alexandria 
were stately vessels carrying several thousand tons. 

257. Wide Extent of Commerce. With these improved condi- 
tions business flourished as never before. There was a fleet of a 
hundred and twenty ships plying regularly across the Indian 
Ocean between the Red Sea and the harbors of India. The wares 
that they brought were shipped west from the docks of Alexan- 
dria, which still remained the greatest commercial city on the 



1 62 General History of Europe 

Mediterranean. There was a proverb that you could get anything 
in Alexandria except snow. A vast system of trade routes by sea 
and land covered the world of the time, from the frontiers of 
China and India on the east, to the harbors of the Atlantic and 
Britain on the west. 

258. What a Tourist might see. The Roman citizens of this 
period often made tours of the Mediterranean much as the mod- 
ern sight-seer does. As the traveler passed through the towns of 
the provinces, he found everywhere evidences of the public spirit 
of the citizens. There were fountains, theaters, music halls, baths, 
and gymnasiums, erected by wealthy men and given to the com- 
munity. There were schools for boys and girls with teachers paid 
by the government. 

To a traveler wandering in Greece and looking back some 
six hundred years to the Age of Pericles or the Persian Wars of 
Athens, Greece seemed to belong to a distant and ancient world, 
of which he had read in the histories of Thucydides and Herod- 
otus (§§ 122, 147). The Roman visitor who strolled through 
Athens or Delphi noticed many an empty pedestal, and he recalled 
how the villas of his friends at home were now adorned with the 
statues which had once occupied them. 

As the traveler passed eastward through the flourishing cities 
of Asia Minor and Syria, he might feel justifiable pride in what 
Roman rule was accomplishing. In the western half of the 
Fertile Crescent, especially just east of the Jordan, where there 
had formerly been only a nomad wilderness, there were now pros- 
perous towns, with long aqueducts, baths, theaters, of which the 
ruins fill even us of today with astonishment. Beyond the desert 
behind these towns lay the former empires of Babylonia, iVssyria, 
and Persia, with their great cities already reduced to mounds of 
rubbish. 

On visiting Alexandria our traveler might have found himself 
joining a group of other tourists, who, after viewing the great 
commercial town founded by Alexander the Great, could make 
their way up the Nile into the midst of a much earlier world — 
the earliest civilization of which they knew. At Memphis and 



The Roman Empire at its Height 163 

Thebes they would see buildings constructed thousands of years 
before Rome was founded. On these mountains we can see today 
the names and comments these tourists scribbled on the stone. 

259. Civilization in the West. In the western Mediterranean 
civilization was a new thing. In that age western Europe had for 




Interior View of the Dome of the Pantheon built at Rome by 

Agrippa and Hadrian 

The first building on this spot was erected by Agrippa, Augustus's great 
minister. But it was completely rebuilt, as we see it here, by Hadrian. The 
circular hole in the ceiling is thirty feet across ; it is one hundred and forty- 
two feet above the pavement, and the diameter of the huge dome is also 
one hundred and forty-two feet. This is the only ancient building in Rome 
which is still standing with walls and roof in a perfectly preserved state. 
It is thus a remarkable example of Roman skill in the use of concrete 
(§ 260). At the same time it is one of the most beautiful and impressive 
domed interiors ever designed 

the first time been building cities, under the guidance of Roman 
architects, and their buildings looked like those at Rome. We can 
still visit and study massive bridges, spacious theaters, imposing 
public monuments, sumptuous villas, and luxurious public baths 
—a line of Roman ruins stretching from Britain through southern 



1 64 



General History of Europe 



France and Germany to the Balkan Peninsula. Similarly, in North 
Africa west of Carthage the ruins of whole cities with magnificent 
public buildings still survive to show us how Roman civilization 
developed there. 

These Roman buildings, still encircling the Mediterranean, 
reveal to us the fact that as a result of ages of human progress 














ttib 







The Vast Amphitheater at Rome now called the Colosseum 
(Restored after Luckenbach) 

This enormous building, one of the greatest in the world, was an oval 
arena surrounded by rising tiers of seats, accommodating nearly fifty thou- 
sand people. We see here only the outside wall, as restored. It was built 
by the emperors Vespasian and Titus, and was completed in 80 a.d. At the 
left is the colossal bronze statue of Nero, about one hundred feet high, 
which originally stood in this vicinity, near the entrance of his famous 
"Golden House," just east of the Forum 

which we have studied, the whole Mediterranean world, West as 
well as East, had now gained a high civilization. 

260. New Public Buildings of Rome. As for Rome itself, a 
visitor at the close of the reign of Hadrian found it the most 
magnificent monumental city in the world of that day. It had 
by that time quite surpassed Alexandria in size and in the number 
and splendor of its public buildings. It was especially in and 
alongside the old Forum that the grandest structures of the 



The Roman Empire at its Height 



165 



Empire had grown up. There Vespasian had erected a vast amphi- 
theater for gladiatorial combats, now known as the Colosseum. 
Along the north side of the old Forum the emperors built three 
new forums which surpassed in magnificence anything which the 
Mediterranean world had ever 
seen before. 

These buildings of Trajan 
and Hadrian represent the high- 
est level of splendor and beauty 
reached by Roman architects. 
In the Hellenistic Age architects 
had begun to employ increasing 
quantities of concrete. The 
domed roof of Hadrian's Pan- 
theon is an enormous solid mass 
of concrete over a hundred and 
forty feet across. The Romans, 
therefore, eighteen hundred years 
ago were employing concrete on 
a scale which we have only re- 
cently learned to imitate, and 
after all this lapse of time the 
roof of the Pantheon seems to 
be as safe and stanch as it was 
when Hadrian's architects first 
knocked away the posts which 
supported the wooden form for 
the great cast. 

261. Roman Sculpture and Painting. The reliefs which adorn 
all these monuments show Roman art at its best. . Those on 
Trajan's column form a sort of picture book of his campaigns. 
The Roman statuary is mainly copies of the masterpieces of the 
great Greek sculptors. The portrait busts of leading Romans are, 
however, among the finest things of the kind ever done and give 
us a lively notion of how the men of the time looked. As for 
painting, the decorations on the walls of houses, copied from 




Portrait of an Unknown 
Roman 

This terra-cotta head is one of the 
finest portraits ever made. It rep- 
resents one of the masterful 
Roman lords of the world, and 
shows clearly in the features those 
qualities of power and leadership 
which so long maintained the su- 
premacy of the Roman Empire 



i66 



General History of Europe 



Hellenistic Greek works, are the most striking examples of the 
art that are to be found in the Roman period. 

262. Pompeii. Fortunately one of the provincial cities has 
been preserved to us with much that we might have seen there 
if we could have visited it nearly two thousand years ago. In the 




sraT ^<JttSi,^^^.- t .,,,.,.,.^ J ^5^^i^-i^\:^:"^- 



A Street in Ancient Pompeii as it appears Today 

The pavement and sidewalk are in perfect condition, as when they were first 
covered by the falling ashes. At the left is a public fountain, and in the 
foreground is a street crossing. Of the buildings on this street only half a 
story still stands, except at the left, where we see the entrances of two shops, 
with the tops of the doors in position and the walls preserved to the level 

of the second floor above 



year 79 of the Christian Era an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius sud- 
denly overwhelmed the little city of Pompeii and covered it with 
ashes. Recent excavations show us the very streets and houses, 
the forum and the public buildings, the shops and the markets, 
and a host of other things illustrating the life of the people of this 
town as it was in the days when they were suddenly buried be- 
neath the ashes of the volcano. 



The Roman Empire at its Height 167 

263. Luxury of the Rich Romans. The richer Romans lived 
in great luxury. The Roman ladies were adorned with diamonds, 
pearls, and rubies from India and clothed in silks from China. 
On their tables were new rare fruits, — peaches, called "Persian 
apples," and apricots. We also first hear of sugar in this period, 
although it did not for a long time generally replace honey for 
sweetening food! Satirists, especially Juvenal (who lived in Tra- 
jan's time), wrote very bitterly of the extravagance and insolence 
of the rich of his day. 

264. Decline of Literature. In spite of the educated public 
and the excellent libraries which were now to be found in Rome, 
the writers were inferior to those of the age of Augustus. Plutarch 
wrote in Greek his remarkable Lives of Famous Men, which has 
charmed and inspired readers ever since. Tacitus prepared his- 
tories of recent events, which are celebrated for compact style 
and penetrating estimates of the leading men of the period. But 
this is the last history of importance that we have, and little is 
known of the following period. 

Science made no advance. The chief scientific writer was 
Pliny the Elder, who wrote a great encyclopedia called Natural 
History. In it he brought together all sorts of information he 
had collected from Greek writers, and he mixes much solid infor- 
mation with stories of mythical animals and men and of the 
magical properties of gems and plants. Yet Pliny's book was re- 
garded during the Middle Ages as a great authority. Men grew 
more and more indifferent to science; they made no new dis- 
coveries and forgot many of the old ones. 

265. The Ptolemaic System. The last scientist of distinction 
that arose in Alexandria was Claudius Ptolemseus, commonly 
called Ptolemy, who seems to have flourished in Hadrian's time or 
a little later. He wrote on geography and astronomy and summed 
up the previous discoveries of the Greeks so well that his books 
were regarded as the last word on the subjects until a few hundred 
years ago. He held that the sun revolved around the earth, and 
his explanation of the movements of the planets is known as the 
Ptolemaic system. It was not until the sixteenth century that, 



1 68 General History of Europe 

with the appearance of Copernicus (§ 593), men began to suspect 
that Ptolemy was wholly mistaken about the universe. 

266. Oriental Religions in Europe. Many thoughtful Romans 
read the Greek philosophy of the Stoics and Epicureans (§ 172) 
in the charming treatises of Cicero (§ 247). But such teaching 
was only for the highly educated and the intellectual class. 

Multitudes, including even the educated, yielded to the fas- 
cination of the mysterious religions coming in from the East. 
Many took refuge in the faith of the Egyptian Isis, and temples 
of Isis were to be found in all the larger cities. Today tiny stat- 
uettes and other symbols of the Egyptian goddess are found even 
along the Seine, the Rhine, and the Danube. 

In the army the Persian Mithras, the sun-god of light (§ 53), 
was a great favorite, and many a Roman legion had its under- 
ground chapel where its members celebrated his triumph over 
darkness and evil. The old Roman religion, like the early Greek 
religious beliefs (§§87, 88), had little to do with right conduct 
and held out no hopes of happiness in the next world, as did these 
new oriental faiths. So it is no wonder that many people were 
attracted by these Eastern forms of worship. 

The Jews also, since their temple in Jerusalem had been de- 
stroyed by the Romans, were to be found in increasing numbers 
in the cities. The Roman world was becoming accustomed to 
their synagogues ; but the Jews refused to acknowledge any god 
besides their own, and this brought them disfavor and trouble 
with the government. 

267. Rise of Christianity. Among all these faiths of the Orient 
the common people were more and more inclining toward the 
Christian missionaries who told how their Master, Jesus, a Hebrew, 
was born in Palestine, the land of the Jews, in the days of 
Augustus. Everywhere they spread his vision of human brother- 
hood and of divine fatherhood. This faith he had preached for 
a few years, till he incurred the hatred of his countrymen, and 
in the reign of Tiberius they had put him to death. 

A Jewish tentmaker, Paul of Tarsus, became the leading 
Christian missionary ; he preached the new gospel in Asia Minor, 




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The Roman Empire at its Height 



169 



Athens, and finally in Rome itself, and Christian churches began 
to spring up. Some of Paul's letters to the churches he founded 
were widely circulated. There were also four accounts in Greek 
of the life and teachings of Jesus that came to be regarded as 
authoritative. These were the four Gospels, which, with Paul's 
letters and some other early Christian writings, were brought 



1-CV--, ■-' ,» ~ "' 




Roman Bridge and Aqueduct at Nimes, France 

This structure was built by the Romans about a.d. 20 to supply the Roman 
colony of Nemausus (now called Nimes) in southern France with water 
from two excellent springs twenty-five miles distant. It is nearly nine 
hundred feet long and one hundred and sixty feet high, and carried the 
water over the valley of the river Gard. The channel for the water is at 
the very top, and one can still walk through it. The miles of aqueduct on 
either side of this bridge and leading to it have almost disappeared 



together to form the New Testament. As time passed, increasing 
numbers learned of the teachings of Jesus and found joy in the 
hopes they awakened. 

268. Roman Persecution of the Early Christians. These 
early Christians, like the Jews, not only refused to sacrifice to the 
emperor as a god, as all good Roman citizens were expected to do, 
but openly prophesied the downfall of the Roman State. While 
the Roman government was usually very tolerant in matters of 
religion, the Christians were therefore frequently called upon to 



170 General History of Europe 

endure cruel persecution. Their religion seemed to interfere with 
good citizenship, since it forbade them to show the usual respect 
for the emperor and the government. Nevertheless their numbers 
steadily grew. 

269. Summary of the Two Centuries of Peace. The remark- 
able forty-four years of the peaceful reign of Augustus had 
ushered in a century of general peace, ending (a.d. 68) with the 
death of the infamous Nero. The second century of peace, which 
began after a brief period of disorder, was covered by the reigns 
of a group of very able emperors, especially Trajan and Hadrian. 
These rulers expanded the once local government and laws of the 
former city-state of Rome until they fitted the needs of a vast 
state including the whole Mediterranean world. At this time 
Christianity was spreading very rapidly. Internal decay was 
going on, however, and under Marcus Aurelius, about a.d. 167, 
the two centuries of peace ended. We now pass on to a fearful 
century of revolution, civil war, and anarchy, from which a very 
different Roman world emerged. 

QUESTIONS 

I. What was the meaning of the various titles of Augustus ? What 
is meant by the substitution of the Roman Empire for the Republic? 
What were the bounds of the Empire in the time of Augustus ? Men- 
tion the chief writers of the time of Augustus. 

II. Mention some of the successors of Augustus. What do you know 
of Nero? What means were taken for protecting the Empire from 
invasion? What improvements were made in the Roman government? 

III. Mention some of the chief peoples included in the Roman 
Empire. How was it possible to get about the Empire ? Describe some 
of the things that a tourist might have seen in his travels. Describe the 
chief public buildings at Rome. Tell something of the science of the 
Romans. Mention the chief oriental religions which prevailed in 
the Roman Empire. Describe the rise of Christianity. 



CHAPTER XIV 

A CENTURY OF DISORDER AND THE DIVISION OF THE 

ROMAN EMPIRE 

I. Decline of the Roman Empire 

270. Signs of Decay. We have now studied the Roman Empire 
in its most flourishing period during the two centuries of relative 
peace that began with the reign of Augustus. We must now see 
how it declined in strength and was finally overrun by the North- 
ern barbarians. We know little of the period, as our sources of 
information are scanty and unreliable. The great historian 
Mommsen wrote four volumes on the rise of Rome to the time of 
Augustus and then was so discouraged when he considered the 
poor historical sources for the remainder of Rome's story that 
he confined the rest of his history to a single volume on the 
Roman provinces. Some things, however, are pretty clear. 

271. The Villas and the Coloni. The decline in farming, so 
noticeable earlier, had gone on, and the land continued to pass over 
into the hands of the rich, whose vast estates were called villas. 
The growth of the villa had destroyed the small independent 
farmers not only in Italy but in Africa, Gaul, Britain, Spain, 
and other leading provinces. Moreover, the soil had gradually lost 
its fertility and become exhausted owing to careless cultivation. 

Unable to compete with the great villas, and finding the burden 
of taxes unbearable, most of the small farmers gave up the 
struggle. A discouraged farmer would often become the colonus 
of some wealthy villa owner. By this arrangement the farmer 
and his descendants were assured possession of the land that they 
worked, but were bound by law to it and passed with it from owner 
to owner when it changed hands. While not actually slaves, they 

171 



i^2 General History of Europe 

were not free to leave or go where they pleased. The great villas 
once worked by slaves were now cultivated chiefly by these coloni 
(plural of colonus), the forerunners of the medieval serfs (§§ 405, 
406), while the older type of slavery gradually disappeared. 

Hosts of the country people, unwilling to become coloni, for- 
sook their fields and turned to the city for relief. Great stretches 
of unworked and weed-grown fields were no uncommon sight. 
As the amount of land under cultivation decreased, the ancient 
world was no longer raising enough food to sustain itself properly. 
The scarcity was felt most severely in the great centers of popu- 
lation like Rome, where prices had rapidly gone up. Our own 
generation is not the first to complain of the "high cost of living." 
The destruction of the small farmers was perhaps the chief cause 
among a whole group of causes which brought about the decline 
and fall of this great Empire. 

272. Decline of Business. At the same time the business in 
the cities was also falling off. The country communities no 
longer possessed a numerous purchasing population. Hence the 
city manufacturers could not dispose of their products in the coun- 
try. Their business rapidly declined, and they discharged their 
workmen, who began to increase the masses of the unemployed. 

The cities became filled with shiftless people scrambling for a 
place in the waiting lines of the poor to whom the government 
distributed free grain, wine, and meat. In order to pay for this 
the taxes had constantly to be raised, and the methods of collect- 
ing them became harsher and harsher. Marriages decreased, and 
the population of the Empire shrank. 

273. Lack of a Law of Succession : Barrack Emperors. The 
discipline in the Roman armies relaxed. There was no law deter- 
mining the succession of the emperors, and the various divisions 
of the army learned that they could set up emperors to suit them- 
selves. Rude and barbarous soldiers, few of whom were citizens, 
thus became the chief controlling power. There were often sev- 
eral of these barrack candidates for the throne fighting among 
themselves. At last (a.d. 212) citizenship was granted to all 
free men within the Empire, and the various provinces felt 



A Century oj Disorder 



173 



that they had as much right as Italy to determine who should be 
ruler. All this caused infinite confusion and disorder. 

274. Marcus Aurelius (a.d. 161-180). There was also the grow- 
ing danger of foreign invaders who threatened the Empire. The 




Restoration of Roman Triumphal Arch at Orange, France 

The Romans built many such handsome arches to commemorate important 
victories. There were a number at Rome, naturally; of those built in the 
chief cities of the Empire several still remain. The one pictured above was 
built at the Roman colony of Arausio (now called Orange), on the river 
Rhone, to celebrate a victory over the Gauls, a.d. 21. Modern cities have 

erected similar arches; for example, Paris, Berlin, London, and New York 

» 

noble emperor Marcus Aurelius had to face a serious situation dur- 
ing his reign. He had to repel the troublesome Parthians, who had 
long infested the eastern boundary. Then barbarian hordes from 
the German North broke through the frontier defenses and for 



174 General History of Europe 

the first time in two centuries poured down into Italy. He was 
unable to expel them entirely from the Empire and finally per- 
mitted some of them to settle within its limits on condition that 
they should help defend it from their fellow Germans. 

Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic and found time during his cam- 
paigns to write a little book in Greek called his Meditations, 
which we may still read with great pleasure and profit. 

II. A Century of Revolution 

275. Beginning of a Century of Revolution (a.d. iso). The 
forces of decline were swiftly bringing on a century of revolution 
which was to shipwreck the civilization of the early world. This 
fatal period began with the death of Marcus Aurelius (a.d. 180). 
The assassination of his unworthy son Commodus, who reminds 
us of Nero, was the opportunity for a struggle among a group of 
military usurpers. From this struggle a rough but successful 
soldier named Septimius Severus emerged triumphant. He sys- 
tematically filled the highest posts in the government with military 
leaders of low origin. Thus, both in the army and in the govern- 
ment, the ignorant and often foreign masses were gaining control. 

When the line of Severus ended (a.d. 235), the storm broke. 
The barbaric troops in one province after another set up their 
puppet emperors to fight among themselves for the throne of 
the Mediterranean world. The proclamation of a new emperor 
would be followed again and again by news of his assassination. 
From the leaders of the barbaric soldier class, after the death of 
Commodus, the Roman Empire had eighty rulers in ninety years. 
Most of these so-called emperors were not unlike the revolutionary 
bandits who have proclaimed themselves presidents of Mexico. 

276. Fifty Years of Anarchy ; Collapse of Higher Civiliza- 
tion. For fifty years there was no public order, as the plunder- 
ing troops tossed the scepter of Rome from one soldier emperor 
to another. Life and property were nowhere safe ; robbery and 
murder were everywhere. The disorder and fighting between rival 
emperors hastened the ruin of all business, till national bankruptcy 



A Century of Disorder 175 

ensued. In this tempest of anarchy during the third century of 
our era the civilization of the ancient world fell into final ruin. 
The leadership of intelligence and of scientific knowledge won by 
the Greeks in the third century b.c. yielded to the reign of igno- 
rance and superstition in these disasters of the third century of 
the Christian Era. 

Such turmoil sadly weakened the Roman army. The Northern 
barbarians were quick to perceive the helplessness of the Empire. 
They crossed the frontiers almost at will and penetrated far into 
Greece and Italy ; in the West they overran Gaul and Spain, and 
some of them even crossed to Africa. 

Moreover, on Rome's eastern boundary the Parthians were 
overthrown (a.d. 226) by a new and enlightened Persian dynasty, 
the Sassanids, who took possession of the Fertile Crescent and 
made Persia a dangerous rival of Rome. Their capital was Ctesi- 
phon on the Tigris. 

III. The Roman Empire becomes an Oriental 

Despotism 

277. Reign of Diocletian (a.d. 284-305); Oriental Pomp. A 
little more than a century after the death of Marcus Aurelius, the 
emperor Diocletian managed to restore what promised to be a 
lasting peace (a.d. 284). The Roman world under Diocletian 
was a totally different one from that which Augustus and the 
Roman Senate had ruled three centuries before. Diocletian de- 
prived the shadowy Senate of all power except that of governing 
the city of Rome. Reduced to a mere City Council, it then dis- 
appeared from the stage of history. With the unlimited power of 
an oriental despot the emperor now assumed also its outward 
symbols,— the diadem, the gorgeous robe embroidered with pearls 
and precious stones, the throne and footstool, before which all who 
came into his presence must bow down to the dust. This pomp 
offered a great contrast to the earlier simplicity of Roman rulers. 

Long regarded as a divinity, the emperor had now become an 
oriental sun-god, and he was officially called the "Invincible Sun." 



176 General History of Europe 

His birthday was on the twenty-fifth of December. All were 
obliged as good citizens to join in the official sacrifices to the head 
of the State as a god. With the incoming of this oriental attitude 
toward the emperor, the long struggle for democracy, which we 
have followed through so many centuries of the history of early 
man, ended for a time in the triumph of absolute monarchy in 
the form of an oriental despotism. 

278. Crushing Weight of Taxation. The wars that Diocletian 
had to wage with the new Persia under the Sassanids kept him 
busy in the East, and he resided most of his time not in Rome 
but in Nicomedia in Asia Minor. Following some earlier exam- 
ples, Diocletian appointed another emperor to rule jointly with 
him and give especial attention to the West. It was not his 
intention to divide the Empire, but there was a tendency from 
this time on for the eastern and western portions of the Roman 
Empire to drift apart. 

There were over a hundred provinces, and the financial burden 
necessary to support all the innumerable officials high and low, to 
keep up the luxurious court of the emperor with its multitude of 
courtiers, and to satisfy the clamors of the army demanded a con- 
stant increase of taxes. It was now customary to oblige a group 
of wealthy men in each city to become personally responsible 
for the payment of the entire taxes of their district. If there 
was a deficit they had to make it up. As one goes over the laws 
of the time it seems as if a great part of them had to do directly 
or indirectly with wringing more and more money out of the 
taxpayers. 

279. Disappearance of Liberty and Free Citizenship. The 
penalty for wealth seemed to be ruin, and there was little encour- 
agement to keep on in business. As Rome had formerly lost her 
prosperous farming class, so now she seemed to be losing her en- 
terprising and successful business men. Diocletian met this by 
forbidding men to give up their business or trade, and laws were 
passed requiring sons to follow the profession or trade of their 
fathers. Even wages and the prices of goods were as far as pos- 
sible fixed by the State. 



A Century of Disorder 177 

So the once free Roman citizen had almost no independent life 
of his own. He was watched by government officials and spies 
who saw to it that the grain dealers, butchers, and bakers supplied 
the public and never deserted their occupation. In a word, the 
Roman government attempted to regulate almost every interest 
of life, and wherever the citizen turned he felt the irksome inter- 
ference and oppression of the State. 

IV. The Triumph of Christianity and Division of 

the Empire 

280. Constantine (a. d. 324-337). Constantine was the first 
important Christian emperor, and all his successors were Chris- 
tians in name (except one, Julian, called by Christians "the 
Apostate"). A series of struggles had followed Diocletian's death, 
and from these Constantine the Great emerged victoriously as 
emperor. The Balkan Peninsula had now become even more 
important than Italy. It had flourishing towns and furnished 
many of the troops, and more than one emperor, including Dio- 
cletian, came from that region. Constantine determined to estab- 
lish a new Rome on its eastern borders and selected for his 
site the old Greek town of Byzantium on the Bosporus. Constan- 
tinople, named after its founder, stood just between Europe and 
Asia and was well situated to command them both. The emperor 
stripped many an ancient town of its works of art to adorn his 
new capital, and before his death it had become a magnificent 
city, worthy to be the successor of Rome as the seat of the 
Empire. 

281. Division of the Empire. The founding of a second capi- 
tal in the East tended to bring about a separation of the eastern 
and western portions of the Empire. When after Constantine's 
time there were two emperors, as there often were, one was likely 
to make his quarters in Italy, the other at Constantinople. But 
the Empire was always regarded as one, and no decree was ever 
issued dividing it into two parts. The ancient res publica, or 
Roman commonwealth, was never given up in theory. 



i 7 8 



General History of Europe 



282. Christianity placed on a Legal Basis. The Roman gov- 
ernment had often persecuted the Christians, and it was against 
the law to hold Christian services. Finally, in the time of Dio- 
cletian, his associate Galerius had issued a decree which permitted 




Ancient Monuments in Constantinople 

The obelisk in the foreground (nearly one hundred feet high) was first set 
up in Thebes, Egypt, by the conqueror Thutmose III (§ 30) ; it was 
erected here by the Roman emperor Theodosius. The small spiral column 
at the right is the base of a bronze tripod set up by the Greeks at Delphi 
in commemoration of their victory over the Persians at Plataea (§ 11 1). The 
names of thirty-one Greek cities which took part in the battle are still to be 
read, engraved on this base. These monuments of ancient oriental and 
Greek supremacy stand in what was the Roman horse-race course when the 
earlier Greek city of Byzantium became the Eastern capital of Rome. 
Finally, the great mosque behind the obelisk, with its slender minarets, rep- 
resents the triumph of Islam under the Turks, who took the city a.d. 1453 



the Christians openly to confess their faith and establish their 
places of worship. The followers of Christ were put on the same 
footing as the worshipers of the old gods. There were a great 
many Christians now, and in spite of the persecutions their 
churches had become powerful organizations. Constantine and 



A Century of Disorder 179 

his Christian successors favored the Christians and began to 
abolish all other religions. Before long the Christians began to 
persecute those who refused to accept their doctrines. 

The Christian Church became more and more powerful and in 
time rivaled the State in its influence. The officers of the Church 
came to be looked upon as occupying a distinguished position and 
were called clergy, while the members of the Church were called the 
laity. Those in charge of the smaller country congregations were 
called presbyters, sl Greek word (meaning "elder") from which our 
word "priest" is derived. Over all the churches in each city a 
leading priest was appointed as bishop. In the larger cities arch- 
bishops, or head bishops, were appointed. They had a certain 
measure of authority over the bishops in the surrounding cities of 
the province. Thus Christianity, once the faith of the weak and 
the despised, became a powerful organization, and the Church 
began to play a great part in public affairs. 

283. Summary of Ancient History. The stone fist-hatchets lie 
deep in the river gravels of France; the furniture of the pile- 
villages is submerged in the Swiss lakes ; the majestic pyramids 
and temples announcing the dawn of civilization rise along the 
Nile ; the silent and deserted city-mounds by the Tigris and 
Euphrates shelter their myriads of clay tablets ; the palaces of 
Crete look out toward the sea they once ruled ; the noble temples 
and sculptures of Greece still bear witness to the world of beauty 
and freedom first revealed by the Greeks ; the splendid Roman 
roads and aqueducts assert the supremacy and organized control 
of Rome ; and the early Christian churches proclaim the new 
ideal of human brotherhood. 

We shall now see in the succeeding chapters how the ancient 
civilization transmitted from the Orient through Greece to Rome 
was never wholly lost, in spite of the dark times of disorder 
through which Europe passed, and how it is this ancient civili- 
zation on which we are still building today. 



180 General History of Europe 

QUESTIONS 

I. What were the chief signs of decline in the Roman Empire? 
What was the position of the farming population? What caused the 
decline in business ? Why did disorders occur in the election of em- 
perors ? What is chiefly remarkable about Marcus Aurelius ? 

II. Compare the third century b.c. with the third century of the 
Christian Era. 

III. Sketch the policy of Diocletian. Why were the taxes so heavy 
in the later Roman Empire ? Why did liberty and free citizenship tend 
to disappear ? 

IV. What were the chief measures of Constantine? How was 
Christianity legalized? Describe the Church at that time. Give a 
summary of ancient history. 



BOOK IV. THE MIDDLE AGES 

CHAPTER XV 

THE PERIOD OF INVASIONS AND THE WORK OF THE 
CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

I. Invasion of the Empire by Barbarians 

284. The Menace of the Barbarians. We must now describe 
the way in which the western portions of the Roman Empire were 
invaded by barbarous peoples from the North, who broke up the 
old Roman government and established in its stead kingdoms 
under their own rulers. These Germans, or "barbarians" as the 
Romans called them, belonged to the same great group of peoples 
to which the Persians, Greeks, and Romans belonged — the Indo- 
European race (§§ 50, 51). They had not advanced much in civil- 
ization since the Late Stone Age and were a constant menace to 
the highly civilized countries on the Mediterranean to the south of 
them. It will be recalled that the barbarians had raided the 
Empire from time to time. In the reign of Diocletian they were 
beginning to form permanent settlements within its borders 

(§ 276). 

285. The German Peoples. The Germans were a fair-haired, 
blue-eyed race of men of towering stature and terrible strength, 
as it seemed to the Romans. Hardened to wind and weather in 
their raw Northern climate, their native fearlessness and love of 
war and plunder often led them to wander about, followed by 
their wives and families in heavy wagons. Each village group was 
protected by its body of about a hundred warriors, the heads of 
the village families. In spite of lack of training, these fighting 
groups of a hundred men, bound by ties of blood and daily 

181 



1 82 General History of Europe 

association, formed battle units as terrible as any ever seen in 
the ancient world, and the Romans had good reason to dread them. 

286. Whole German Peoples settle in the Empire. The care- 
fully disciplined Roman legions, which had gained for Rome the 
leadership of the world, were now no more. Indeed, the lack of 
men for the army had long since led the emperors to hire the 
Germans as soldiers. A more serious step was the admission of 
entire German peoples to live in the Empire, with all their old 
customs. The men were then received into the Roman army, but 
they remained under their own German leaders and fought in 
their old village units. 

287. The Huns force the Goths into the Empire. About the 
year 375 the Huns, a Mongolian folk from central Asia, swept 
down upon the Goths, who were a German tribe settled upon the 
Danube, and forced a part of them to seek shelter across the 
river, within the limits of the Empire. Here they soon fell out 
with the Roman officials, and a great battle was fought at Adrian- 
ople in 378, in which the Goths defeated and slew the Roman 
emperor Valens. The battle of Adrianople may be said to mark 
the beginning of the conquest of the Empire by the Germans. 
For some years after the battle of Adrianople, however, the vari- 
ous bands of West Goths — or Visigoths, as they are often called 
— were induced to accept the terms of peace offered by the 
emperor's officials, and some of the Goths agreed to serve as 
soldiers in the Roman armies. 

288. Alaric takes Rome (410). Among the Germans who suc- 
ceeded in getting an important position in the Roman army was 
Alaric, but he appears to have become dissatisfied with the treat- 
ment he received from the emperor. He therefore collected an 
army, of which his countrymen the West Goths formed a con- 
siderable part, set out for Italy, and finally decided to march on 
Rome itself. The Eternal City fell into his hands in 410 and 
was plundered by his followers. Although Alaric did not de- 
stroy the city, or even seriously damage it, the fact that Rome 
had fallen into the hands of an invading army was a notable 
disaster. 



The Period of Invasions 183 

289. West Goths settle in Southern Gaul and Spain; the 
Vandals. After the death of Alaric the West Goths wandered into 
Gaul and then into Spain, where they came upon the Vandals, 
another German tribe, whom they seem to have finally driven 
across the Strait of Gibraltar into northern Africa. Here the 
Vandals established a kingdom and conquered the neighboring 
islands in the Mediterranean. 

Having rid themselves of the Vandals, the West Goths took 
possession of a great part of the Spanish peninsula, and this they 
added to their conquests across the Pyrenees in Gaul, so that their 
kingdom extended from the river Loire to the Strait of Gibraltar. 

It is unnecessary to follow the confused history of the move- 
ments of the innumerable bands of restless barbarians who wan- 
dered about Europe during the fifth century. Scarcely any part 
of western Europe was left unmolested ; even Britain was con- 
quered by German tribes, the Angles and Saxons. 

290. Attila and the Huns. To add to the universal confusion, 
the Huns (the Mongolian people who had first pushed the West 
Goths into the Empire) now began to fill Europe with terror. 
Under their chief, Attila, this savage people invaded Gaul, but 
were repulsed in the battle of Chalons, in 451. Attila then turned 
to Italy ; but the danger there was averted by an embassy headed 
by Pope Leo the Great, who induced Attila to give up his plan 
of marching upon Rome. Within a year he died, and his warriors 
were scattered. 

291. The Fall of the Empire in the West (476). The year 
476 has commonly been taken as the date of the "fall" of the 
Western Empire and of the beginning of the Middle Ages. What 
happened in that year was this. Most of the Roman emperors 
in the West had proved weak and indolent rulers ; so the bar- 
barians wandered hither and thither pretty much at their pleasure, 
and the German troops in the service of the Empire became accus- 
tomed to set up and depose emperors to suit their own special 
interest. Finally, in 476, Odoacer, the most powerful among the 
rival German generals in Italy, declared himself king and ban- 
ished the last of the emperors of the West. 



1 84 



General History of Europe 



292. Theodoric establishes the Kingdom of the East Goths 
in Italy. It was not, however, given to Odoacer to establish an 
enduring German kingdom on Italian soil, for he was conquered 







^a>^c#^ < 



Roman Gate at Treves 

Colonia Augusta Trevirorum (now called Trier or Treves) was one of the 
chief Roman colonies on the German boundaries of the Empire. The Roman 
emperors often resided there, and the remains of their palace are still to be 
seen. The great gate here represented was designed to protect the entrance 
of the town, which was surrounded with a wall, for the Romans were in 
constant danger of attack from the neighboring German tribes. One can also 
see at Treves the remains of a vast amphitheater in which on two occasions 
Constantine had several thousand German prisoners cast to be killed by- 
wild animals for the amusement of the spectators 



by the great Theodoric, the king of the East Goths (or Ostro- 
goths). Theodoric had spent ten years of his early youth in 
Constantinople and had thus become familiar with Roman life 
and was on friendly terms with the emperor of the East. He 
greatly admired the Roman laws and institutions, and when he 




SCALE OF MILES 

5 ' 100 200 300 400 

v Longitude 



Map of Europe in the Time of Theodoric 

It will be noticed that Theodoric's kingdom of the East Goths included a 
considerable part of what we call Austria today, and that the West Gothic 
kingdom extended into southern France. The Vandals held northern Africa 
and the adjacent islands. The Burgundians lay in between the East Goths 
and the Franks. The Lombards, who were later to move down into Italy, 
were in Theodoric's time east of the Bavarians, after whom modern Bavaria 
is named. Some of the Saxons invaded England, but many remained in 
Germany, as indicated on the map. The Eastern Empire, which was all that 
remained of the Roman Empire, included the Balkan Peninsula, Asia Minor, 
and the eastern portion of the Mediterranean. The Britons in Wales, the 
Picts in Scotland, and the Scots in Ireland were Celts ; consequently modern 
Welsh, Gaelic, and Irish are closely related and all of them belong to the 

Celtic group of languages 



1 86 General History of Europe 

became king he did his best to preserve them. The old offices and 
titles were retained, and Goth and Roman lived under the same 
Roman law. Order was maintained and learning encouraged. In 
Ravenna, which Theodoric chose for his capital, beautiful build- 
ings still exist that date from his reign. 

293. Code of Justinian. The year after Theodoric's death one 
of the greatest emperors of the East, Justinian (527-565), came 
to the throne at Constantinople. He employed a very able lawyer 
to gather together all the numerous laws which had grown up 
since the age of the Twelve Tables (§188) a thousand years 
before. This collection of decisions of famous Roman judges 
became the foundation of law for later ages, and still greatly 
influences the laws of civilized peoples of today. 

Justinian undertook to regain for his empire the provinces 
in Africa and Italy that had been occupied by the Vandals and 
East Goths. He overthrew the Vandal kingdom in northern 
Africa in 534, and so completely defeated the Goths in 553 that 
they agreed to leave Italy with all their movable possessions. 

294. The Lombards occupy Italy. Immediately after the 
death of Justinian the country was overrun by the Lombards, the 
last of the great German peoples to establish themselves within 
the bounds of the former Empire. The newcomers first occupied 
the region north of the Po, which has ever since been called 
"Lombardy" after them, and then extended their conquests 
southward. They were unable, however, to gain possession of 
all of- Italy. Rome, Ravenna, and southern Italy continued to be 
held by the emperors at Constantinople. Their kingdom lasted 
over two hundred years, until it was conquered by Charlemagne. 

295. The Franks and their Conquests. While Theodoric had 
been establishing his kingdom in Italy, Gaul, which we now call 
France, was coming under the control of the most powerful of all 
the barbarian peoples, the Franks. (The map on the previous page 
will give an idea of the new German kingdoms in Theodoric's 
time.) The various kingdoms established by the German chieftains 
were not very permanent, as we have seen. The Franks, however, 
succeeded in conquering more territory than any other people 



The Period of Invasions 



187 




Km. of the ^ e * 



The Dominions of the Franks under the Merovingians 

This map shows how the Frankish kingdom grew up. Clovis, while still a 
young man, defeated the Roman general Syagrius in 486, near Soissons, and 
so added the region around Paris to his possessions. He added Alemannia 
on the east in 496. In 507 he made Paris his capital and conquered Aqui- 
tania, previously held by the West Goths. He also made a beginning in 
adding the kingdom of the Burgundians to his realms. He died in 511. His 
successors in the next half century completed the conquest of Burgundy and 
added Provincia, Bavaria, and Gascony. There were many divisions of the 
Frankish realms after the time of Clovis, and the eastern and western 
portions, called Austrasia and Neustria, were often ruled by different branches 
of the Merovingians, as Clovis's family was called from his ancestor 
Meroveus, the supposed founder of his line 

and in founding an empire far more important than the kingdoms 
of the West and East Goths, the Vandals, or the Lombards. 

When the Franks are first heard of in history they were settled 
along the lower Rhine, from Cologne to the North Sea. In the 
early part of the fifth century they had occupied the district 
which forms today the kingdom of Belgium, as well as the regions 



1 88 General History of Europe 

east of it. In 486 they went forth under their great king Clovis 
(a name that later grew into Louis) and defeated the Roman 
general who opposed them. They extended their control over 
Gaul as far south as the Loire, which at that time formed the 
northern boundary of the kingdom of the West Goths. Clovis 
next enlarged his empire on the east by the conquest of the Ale- 
manni, a German people living in the region of the Black Forest 
and north of the Lake of Constance. 

296. Conversion of Clovis (496). The battle in which the 
Alemanni were defeated (496) is in one respect important above 
all the other battles of Clovis. Although still a pagan himself, his 
wife had been converted to Christianity. In the midst of the 
battle, seeing his troops giving way, he called upon Jesus Christ 
and pledged himself to be baptized in his name if he would help 
the Franks to victory over their enemies. When he won the 
battle he kept his word and was baptized, together with three 
thousand of his warriors. 

Clovis died in 511 at Paris, which he had made his residence. 
He and his successors, in spite of constant wars between rival 
sons, succeeded in extending the power of the Frankish rulers 
over pretty much all the territory that is included today in 
France, Belgium, Holland, and western Germany (see map on 
preceding page). 

II. Results of the Barbarian Invasions 

297. Fusion of the Barbarians and the Romans. As one looks 
back over the German invasions it is natural to ask upon what 
terms the newcomers lived among the old inhabitants of the 
Empire. The civilization in which the barbarians now found 
themselves gradually softened their Northern wildness. Their 
leaders, who held offices under the Roman government, came to 
have friends among highborn Romans and often married Roman 
women of rank. We must be on our guard against exaggerating 
the numbers in the various bodies of invaders. The readiness 
with which the Germans appear to have adopted the language and 



The Period of Invasions 189 

customs of the Romans would tend to prove that the invaders 
formed but a small minority of the population. Since hundreds 
of thousands of barbarians had been absorbed -during the previous 
five centuries, the invasions of the fifth century can hardly have 
made an abrupt change in the character of the population. 

Indeed, the Germans and older inhabitants of the Empire ap- 
pear to have had no dislike for one another except in matters of 
religion. The Frankish kings often appointed Romans to impor- 
tant positions, just as the Romans had previously selected the 
Germans. The two races were distinguished in one respect, how- 
ever ; each had its own particular law. 

298. Laws of the Barbarians. The West Goths were probably 
the first to write down their ancient laws, using the Latin lan- 
guage for the purpose. Their example was followed by the 
Franks, the Burgundians, and later by the Lombards. These 
codes make up the "Laws of the Barbarians," which form our 
most important source of knowledge of the habits and ideas of 
the Germans at the time of the invasions. 

299. Medieval Trials. The German laws did not provide for 
trials in the modern sense of the word. Instead of a decision 
based on evidence, one of the parties to the case had to prove 
that his side was right by one of the following methods : 

1. He might solemnly swear that he was telling the truth, and 
get as many other persons of his own class as the court required 
to swear that they believed that he was telling the truth. This 
was called compurgation. It was believed that God would punish 
those who swore falsely. 

2 . On the other hand, the parties to the case, or persons repre- 
senting them, might meet in combat, on the supposition that 
Heaven would grant victory to the right. This was the so-called 
wager of battle. 

3. Lastly, one or other of the parties might be required to sub- 
mit to the ordeal in one of its various forms : He might plunge 
his arm into hot water or carry a bit of hot iron for some distance, 
and if at the end of three days he showed no ill effects the case 
was decided in his favor. Or he might be ordered to walk over 



190 General History of Europe 

hot plowshares, arid if he was not burned it was assumed that 
God had intervened by a miracle to establish the right. This 
method of trial is but one example of the rude civilization which 
displaced the refined and elaborate organization of the Romans. 

300. Ignorance of the Early Middle Ages. While the bar- 
barian tribes differed in their habits and character, they all agreed 
in knowing nothing of the art, literature, and science which had 
been developed by the Greeks and adopted by the Romans. For 
a period of three hundred years scarcely a person was to be found 
who could write out, even in the worst Latin, an account of the 
events of his day. Everything conspired to discourage education. 
The great centers of learning — Carthage, Rome, Alexandria, 
Milan — had all been partially destroyed by the invaders. The 
libraries which had been kept in the temples of the pagan gods 
were often burned, along with the temples themselves, by Chris- 
tian enthusiasts, who were not sorry to see the heathen books 
disappear with the heathen religion. 

301. Most Medieval Notions to be found in the Late Roman 
Empire. It would be a great mistake to suppose, however, that 
Roman civilization suddenly disappeared at this time as a result 
of the incoming barbarians. Many of the ideas and conditions 
which prevailed after the invasions were common enough before. 
Even the ignorance and strange ideas which we associate particu- 
larly with the Middle Ages are to be found in the later Roman 
Empire. Long before the German conquest art and literature 
had begun to decline toward the level that they reached in the 
early Middle Ages. 

The term "Middle Ages" is generally applied to the period of 
about a thousand years which elapsed between the break-up of 
the Roman Empire and the opening of the sixteenth century. 
But it should be remembered that there was a great difference 
between the dark period of the early Middle Ages and the re- 
markable achievements of the late Middle Ages which will be 
described in due time. 



The Period of Invasions 191 

III. The Mohammedan Invasion of Europe 

302. Mohammed. While the German barbarians were over- 
whelming the Empire from the north, a young camel driver in 
far-away Mecca was devising a religion in the name of which his 
followers invaded the eastern and southern portions of Europe. 

Before the time of Mohammed, the Arabs (a branch of the 
great Semitic people) had played no great part in the world's 
history. The scattered tribes were constantly at war with one 
another, and each tribe worshiped its own gods, when it wor- 
shiped at all. Mecca was considered a sacred spot, however, and 
the fighting was stopped four months each year so that all could 
peacefully visit the holy city. 

As Mohammed traveled back and forth across the desert with 
his trains of camels heavily laden with merchandise he became 
convinced that God was sending him messages which it was his 
duty to reveal to mankind. He met many Jews and Christians, 
of whom there were great numbers in Arabia, and from them he 
got some ideas of the Old and New Testaments. But when he 
tried to convince people that he was God's prophet, he was 
treated with scorn. 

Finally, he discovered that his enemies in Mecca were plan- 
ning to kill him, and he fled to the neighboring town of Medina, 
where he had friends. His flight, which took place in the year 
622, is called the Hejira by the Arabs. It was taken by his fol- 
lowers as the beginning of a new era — the year One, as the 
Mohammedans reckon time. 

303. Islam and the Koran. It was eight years before his fol- 
lowers became numerous enough to enable him to march upon 
.Mecca and take it with a victorious army. Before his death in 
632 he had gained the support of all the Arab chiefs, and his new 
religion, which he called Islam (meaning "reconciliation," by 
which he meant reconciliation to Allah, the sole God), was ac- 
cepted throughout the whole Arabian peninsula. The new be- 
lievers he called Muslims (Moslems), meaning "the reconciled." 
By us they are often called Mohammedans, after their prophet. 



192 



General History of Europe 



Mohammed could probably neither write nor read well, but 
when he fell into trances from time to time he would repeat to his 
eager listeners the words which he heard from heaven, and they 

in turn wrote them down. 
These sayings, which were 
collected into a volume 
shortly after his death, form 
the Koran, the Mohamme- 
dan Bible. 

The Koran announces a 
day of judgment when the 
heavens shall be opened and 
the mountains be powdered 
and become like flying dust. 
Then all men shall receive 
their reward. Those who 
have refused to accept 
Islam shall be banished to 
hell to be burned and tor- 
mented forever. 

Those, on the other hand, 
who have obeyed the Koran, 
especially those who die 
fighting for Islam, shall find 
themselves in a garden of 
delight. They shall recline 
in rich brocades upon soft 
cushions and rugs and be 
served by surpassingly beau- 
tiful maidens, with eyes like 
hidden pearls. Wine may be drunk there, but "their heads shall 
not ache with it, neither shall they be confused." They shall be 
content with their past life and shall hear no foolish words ; and 
there shall be no sin, but only the greeting " Peace, peace." 

304. Mosques. The mosques, or temples, are often very beauti- 
ful buildings, especially in important Mohammedan cities such as 




Arabic Writing 

This is a page from the Koran, with an 
elaborate decorated border. It gives an 
idea of the appearance of Arabic writing. 
The Arabic letters are, next to the 
Roman alphabet, which we use, the most 
widely employed in the world 



Q 

w 

H 

<; 
u 

M 

Q 



o 

W 

w 
W 

H 
H 
O 




en 
W 

..J 



CO i*-* 



w w 
W P 

S3 « 



en 
H 

CQ 
W 

p 

o 
V 

< 
a 







A Crusader and his Followers 
See Chapter XIX, pp. 237-247 



The Period of Invasions 193 

Jerusalem, Damascus, and Cairo. They have great courts sur- 
rounded by covered colonnades and are adorned with beautiful 
marbles and mosaics and delightful windows with bright stained 
glass. The walls are decorated with passages from the Koran, 
and the floors are covered with rich rugs. They have one or more 
minarets, from which the call to prayer is heard five times a day. 

305. Rise of the Oriental Empire of the Moslems. The 
Moslem leaders who succeeded to Mohammed's power were called 
caliphs. As rulers they proved to be men of the greatest ability. 
They organized the untamed desert nomads, who now added a 
burning religious zeal to the wild courage of barbarian Arabs. 
This combination made the Arab armies of the caliphs irresistible. 
Within a few years after Mohammed's death they took Egypt 
and Syria from the feeble successors of Justinian at Constan- 
tinople. They thus reduced the Eastern Empire to little more 
than the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor. At the same time 
the Arabs crushed the empire of the New Persians (§ 276), but 
took over their city civilization. 

With the ruins of Babylon looking down upon them the Mos- 
lems built their splendid capital at Bagdad beside the New Per- 
sian royal residence at Ctesiphon. Here> as Sargon's people and 
as the Persians had so long before done, the Arabs learned to read 
and write and could thus put the Koran into writing. Here, too, 
they learned the business of government and became experienced 
rulers. Thus beside the shapeless mounds of the older capitals — 
Akkad, Babylon, and Ctesiphon — the power and civilization of the 
Orient rose into new life for the last time. Bagdad became the 
finest city of the East and one of the most splendid in the world. 
The caliphs extended their power eastward to the frontiers of 
India. 

306. The Moslem Advance to the West ; the Battle of 
Tours. Westward the Moslems pushed along the African coast 
of the Mediterranean, as their Phoenician kindred had done before 
them (§83). Only two generations after the death of Moham- 
med the Arabs crossed over from Africa into Spain (a.d. 711) ; 
then they moved on into France and threatened to girdle the entire 



194 General History of Europe 

Mediterranean. At the battle of Tours (a.d. 732), however, the 
Moslems were unable to crush the Frankish army under their 
leader, Charles the Hammer. They withdrew permanently from 
France into Spain, where they established a western Moslem 
kingdom, which we call Moorish. 

307. Leadership of Moslem Civilization. The Moorish king- 
dom developed a civilization far higher than that of the Franks, 
and, indeed, the highest in the Europe of that age. Thus while 
Europe was sinking into the ignorance of the early Middle Ages the 
Moslems were the leading students of science, astronomy, mathe- 
matics, and grammar. There was soon much greater knowledge 
of these matters among the Mohammedans than in Christian 
Europe. Such Arabic words as algebra and our numerals, which 
we received from the Arabs, suggest how much we owe to them. 

Some of the buildings which they erected soon after their 
arrival still stand. Among these is the mosque at Cordova with 
its forest of columns and arches. They also erected a great tower 
at Seville, famous for its beauty. This has been copied by the 
architects of Madison Square Garden in New York. The Moham- 
medans built beautiful palaces and laid out charming gardens. 
One of these palaces, the Alhambra, built at Granada some cen- 
turies after their arrival in Spain, is a marvel of lovely detail 
(see cut facing this page). They also founded a great university 
at Cordova, to which Christians from the North sometimes went 
in search of knowledge. Had the Mohammedans been permitted 
to settle in southern France, they might have developed science 
and art far more rapidly than did the Franks. 

IV. The Work of the Christian Church 

308. The Church begins to perform the Functions of Gov- 
ernment. The chief importance of the medieval Church for the 
student of history does not lie in its religious functions, vital 
as they were, but rather in its remarkable relations to the govern- 
ment. From the days of Constantine on, the Catholic Church 
had usually enjoyed the hearty support of the government. As 



The Period of Invasions 195 

long as the emperors remained strong and active there was no 
reason for the clergy to assume any responsibility in the manage- 
ment of the State. But as the great Empire fell apart the Church 
was often called upon to assist in matters which properly belonged 
to the government. 

The authority of the various barbarian kings was seldom suffi- 
cient to keep their realms in order. There were always many 
powerful landholders scattered throughout the kingdom who did 
pretty much what they pleased and settled their grudges against 
their fellows by neighborhood wars. Fighting was the main busi- 
ness as well as the chief amusement of this class. The king was 
unable to maintain peace and protect the oppressed, however 
anxious he may have been to do so. 

Under these circumstances it naturally fell to the Church to 
keep order, when it could, by either threats or persuasion; to 
see that contracts were kept, the wills of the dead carried out, 
and marriage obligations observed. It took the defenseless widow 
and orphan under its protection and dispensed charity ; it pro- 
moted education at a time when few laymen, however rich and 
noble, could even read. These conditions serve to explain why 
the Church was finally able so greatly to extend the powers 
which it had enjoyed under the Roman Empire, and why it under- 
took duties which seem to us to belong to the State rather than 
to a religious .organization. 

309. Origin of Papal Power. We must now turn to a con- 
sideration of the origin and growth of the supremacy of the popes, 
who, by raising themselves to the head -of the Western Church, 
became in many respects more powerful than any of the kings 
and princes with whom they frequently found themselves in 
bitter conflict. There had always been a tradition that Peter was 
the first bishop of Rome. The belief appears to have been gen- 
erally accepted at least as early as the middle of the second cen- 
tury. Peter enjoyed a preeminence among the other apostles 
and was singled out by Christ upon several occasions. In a pas- 
sage of the New Testament (Matt, xvi, 18-19), which has affected 
history more profoundly than the edicts of the most powerful 



196 General History of Europe 

monarch, Christ says: "And I say also unto thee, That thou 
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; and the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto 
thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever thou 
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever 




The Ancient Basilica of St. Peter 

Of the churches built by Constantine in Rome that in honor of St. Peter 
was, next to the Lateran, the most important. It was constructed on the 
site of Nero's circus, where St. Peter was believed to have been crucified. 
It retained its original appearance, as here represented, for twelve hundred 
years, and then the popes (who had given up the Lateran as their residence 
and come to live in the Vatican Palace close to St. Peter's) determined to 
build the new and grander church one sees today. Constantine and the 
popes made constant use in their buildings of columns and stones taken 
from the older Roman buildings, which were in this way demolished 

thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." This the 
popes have always claimed as the divine sanction of their office 
and of the authority which they believed to be theirs. 

310. The Roman Church the Mother Church. The Roman 
Church was therefore early looked upon as the "Mother Church" 
in the West. Its doctrines were considered the purest, since they 
had been handed down from its exalted founders. When there 



The Period of Invasions 197 

was a difference of opinion in regard to the truth of a particular 
teaching, it was natural that all should turn to the bishop of 
Rome for his view. Moreover, the majesty of Rome, the capital 
of the world, helped to exalt its bishop above his fellows. 

311. Title of Pope. The name " pope " (Latin, papa, "father") 
was originally given to all bishops, and even to priests. It began 
to be especially applied to the bishops of Rome, perhaps, as early 
as the sixth century, but was not apparently confined to them 
until two or three hundred years later. 

Not long after the death of Leo the Great (§ 290), Odoacer 
put an end to the Western line of emperors. Then, as we know, 
Theodoric and his East Goths settled in Italy, only to be fol- 
lowed by still less desirable intruders, the Lombards. Dur- 
ing this tumultuous period the people of Rome, and even of all 
Italy, came to regard the Pope as their natural leader. The 
Eastern emperor was far away, and his officers, who managed to 
hold a portion of central Italy around Rome and Ravenna, were 
glad to accept the aid and counsel of the Pope. 

312. Gregory the Great (590-604). The pontificate of Gregory 
the Great, one of the half dozen most distinguished heads that 
the Church has ever had, shows how great a part the papacy could 
play. Gregory was a statesman whose influence extended far and 
wide. It devolved upon him to govern the city of Rome, — as it 
did upon his successors down to the year 1870, — for the Eastern 
emperor's control had become merely nominal. He also valiantly 
defended central Italy from the Lombards. These duties were 
functions of the State, and in assuming them Gregory may be 
said to have founded the "temporal" power of the popes. 

313. Gregory's Missionary Undertakings. Gregory's chief 
importance in the history of the papacy is due to the missionary 
enterprises he undertook, through which the great countries that 
were one day to be called England, France, and Germany were 
brought under the sway of the Roman Church and its head, the 
Pope. 

As Gregory had himself been a devoted monk, it was natural 
that he should rely chiefly upon the monks in his great work of 



198 General History of Europe 

converting the heathen. Consequently, before considering his 
missionary achievements, we must glance at the origin and char- 
acter of the monks, who are so conspicuous throughout the 
Middle Ages. 

V. The Monks and their Missions 

314. Importance of the Monks. It would be difficult to over- 
estimate the influence that the monks and other religious orders 
exercised for centuries in Europe. The proud annals of the 
Benedictines, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits contain many 
a distinguished name. Eminent philosophers, historians, artists, 
and poets may be found in their ranks. Among those who have 
made themselves famous are "The Venerable Bede," Boniface, 
Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, Fra Angelico, Luther, Erasmus, 
Loyola ; all these, and many other leaders in various branches of 
human activity, were monks, or members of religious orders. 

315. Monasticism appealed to Many Classes. The life in a 
monastery appealed to many different kinds of people. The mon- 
astery was the natural refuge not only of the religiously minded 
but of those of a studious or thoughtful disposition who disliked 
the career of a soldier and were disinclined to face the dangers 
and uncertainties of the times. It furnished, too, a refuge for 
the friendless, an asylum for the unfortunate, and sometimes food 
and shelter for the indolent, who would otherwise have had to 
earn their living. There were, therefore, many different motives 
which led people to enter monasteries. Kings and nobles, for the 
good of their souls, readily gave land upon which to found colonies 
of monks, and there were plenty of remote spots in the mountains 
and forests to invite those who wished to escape from the world 
and its temptations, its dangers, or its cares. 1 

316. Rule of St. Benedict. Monastic communities first de- 
veloped on a large scale in Egypt in the fourth century. In the 
sixth century monasteries multiplied so rapidly in western Europe 
that it became necessary to establish definite rules for them. 

1 Later, monasteries were sometimes built in towns or just outside the walls. 



The Period of Invasions 199 

Accordingly St. Benedict drew up, about the year 526, a sort of 
constitution for the monastery of Monte Cassino, in southern Italy, 
of which he was the head. This "Rule of St. Benedict," as it is 
called, so well met the needs of the monastic life that it gradually 
became the "plan" according to which all the Western monks lived. 




Cloisters of Heiligenkreuz 

This picture of the cloister in the German monastery of Heiligenkreuz is 
chosen to show how the more ordinary monastery courts looked, with their 

pleasant, sunny gardens 

The Rule of St. Benedict is as important as any constitution 
that was ever drawn up for a state. It provided that the brethren 
should elect the head of the monastery — the abbot, as he was 
called. Along with frequent prayer and meditation the monks 
were to do the necessary cooking and washing for the monastery 
and raise the necessary vegetables and grain. They were also to 
read and teach. Those who were incapacitated for outdoor work 
were assigned lighter tasks, such as copying books. 

317. The Monastic Vows. The monk had to take the three 
vows of obedience, poverty, and purity. He was to obey the 
abbot without question in all matters that did not involve his 
committing a sin. He pledged himself to perpetual and absolute 



2 00 



General History of Europe 



poverty ; he was not permitted to own anything whatsoever — 
not even a book or a pen. He was also required to pledge himself 
that he would never marry ; for not only was the single life con- 
sidered more holy than the married, but the monastic organiza- 
tion would have been impossible unless the monks remained single. 




Monastery of Val di Cristo 

This monastery in southern Spain has two cloisters, the main one lying to the 

left. The buildings were surrounded by vegetable gardens and an orchard 

which supplied the monks with food. We know that we are viewing the 

monastery from the west, for the church faces us 



318. How the Monks contributed to Civilization. With the 
great loss of manuscripts due to the destruction of libraries and 
the general lack of interest in books, it was most essential that 
new copies should be made. Almost all the books written by tne 
Romans disappeared altogether during the Middle Ages, but from 
time to time a monk would copy out the poems of Virgil, Horace, 
or Ovid, or the speeches of Cicero. In this way some of the chief 
works of the Latin writers have continued to exist down to the 
present day. 



The Period of Invasions 201 

The monks regarded good hard work as a great aid to salva- 
tion. They set the example of careful cultivation of the lands 
about their monasteries and in this way introduced better farming 
methods into the regions where they settled. They entertained 
travelers at a time when there were few or no inns and so in- 
creased the intercourse between the various parts of Europe. 

319. Arrangement of a Monastery. The home which the 
monks constructed for themselves was called a monastery or 
abbey. The buildings were arranged around a court, called the 
cloister. On all four sides of this was a covered walk, which made 
it possible to reach all the buildings without exposing one's self 
to either the rain or the hot sun. 

On the north side of the cloister was the church, which always 
faced west. As time went on and certain groups of monks were 
given a great deal of property, they constructed very beautiful 
churches for their monasteries. Westminster Abbey, for instance, 
was originally the church of a monastery lying outside the city 
of London. 

On the west side of the cloister were storerooms for provisions ; 
on the south side was the "refectory," or dining room, and a 
sitting room ; and to the east of the cloister was the "dormitory," 
where the monks slept. 

The Benedictine Rule provided that the monks should so far 
as possible have everything for their support on their own land. 
So outside the group of buildings around the cloister would be 
found the garden, the orchard, the mill, a fishpond, and fields 
for raising grain. There were also a hospital for the sick and a 
guest house for pilgrims or poor people who happened to come 
along. 

320. The Monks as Missionaries. The first great undertaking 
of the monks was the conversion of those German peoples who had 
not yet been won over to Christianity. In this they were successful 
and the strength of the Roman Catholic Church was greatly in- 
creased. The first people to engage the attention of the monks 
were the heathen German tribes who had conquered the once 
Christian Britain. 



202 General History of Europe 

321. Saxons and Angles conquer Britain. The islands which 
are now known as the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland were 
at the opening of the Christian Era occupied by several Celtic 
peoples of whose customs and religion we know almost nothing. 
Julius Caesar commenced the conquest of the islands (55 b.c.) 
(§234). But the Romans never succeeded in establishing their 
power beyond the wall which they built from the Clyde to the 
Firth of Forth to keep out the wild tribes of the North. Even 
south of the wall the country was not completely Romanized, 
and the Celtic tongue has- actually survived down to the present 
day in Wales. 

At the opening of the fifth century the barbarian invasions 
forced Rome to withdraw its legions from Britain in order to 
protect its frontiers on the Continent. The island was thus left 
to be conquered gradually by the Germanic peoples, mainly 
Saxons and Angles, who came across the North Sea from the 
region south of Denmark. Almost all record of what went on dur- 
ing the two centuries following the departure of the Romans has 
disappeared. No one knows the fate of the original Celtic in- 
habitants of England. It was formerly supposed that they were 
all killed or driven to the mountain districts of Wales, but this 
seems unlikely. More probably they were gradually lost among 
the dominating Germans, with whom they merged into one people. 
The Saxon and Angle chieftains established small kingdoms, of 
which there were seven or eight in the time of Gregory the 
Great (§§ 312,313). 

322. Conversion of Britain. Gregory, while still a simple 
monk, had been struck with the beauty of some Angles whom he 
saw one day in the slave market at Rome, and wished to go as a 
missionary to their people, but permission was refused him. When 
he became Pope he sent forty monks to England under the leader- 
ship of a prior named Augustine. The monks were kindly received 
by the king of Kent, who had a Christian wife, and were given 
an ancient church at Canterbury. Here they established a mon- 
astery, and from this center the conversion of the whole island 
was gradually accomplished. The archbishop of Canterbury has 




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Monastery of St.-Germain-des-Pres, Paris 



This famous monastery, now in the midst of Paris, was formerly outside of 
the walls when the town was much smaller, and was fortified as shown in 
the picture, with a moat (C) and drawbridge (D) . One can see the abbey 
church (A), which still stands; the cloister (B) ; the refectory, or dining 
room (£) ; and the long dormitory (G) . It was common in the age of 
disorder to fortify monasteries and sometimes even churches, as nothing 
was so sacred as to protect it from the danger of attack 



The Period of Invasions 203 

always maintained his early preeminence and down to this day is 
considered the chief prelate of the English church. 

323. St. Boniface, the Apostle to the Germans. In 718 
St. Boniface, an English monk, was sent by the Pope as a mis- 
sionary to the Germans. He succeeded in converting many of the 
more remote German tribes, who had still retained their old pagan 
beliefs. His energetic methods are illustrated by the story of how 
he cut down the sacred oak of the old German god Odin, at 
Fritzlar, in Hesse, and used the wood to build a chapel, around 
which a monastery soon grew up. 

QUESTIONS 

I. How did the Roman army come to include numbers of Germans ? 
Trace the migrations of the West Goths. Where did they finally estab- 
lish their kingdom? Describe the policy of Theodoric. What is the 
Justinian Code ? Who were the Franks ? How much of modern Europe 
was included in their kingdom? 

II. What are the "Laws of the Barbarians"? How did their trials 
differ from those we are familiar with today? What is meant by the 
Middle Ages ? Contrast the civilization of the Middle Ages with that 
of the Roman period. What were the chief reasons why the Empire 
could no , longer maintain itself? 

III. Give an account of Mohammed's life. What were the princi- 
pal features of the religion he founded? Compare the mosques with 
Christian churches. Compare the spread of Mohammedanism with 
that of Christianity. What countries were conquered by the Moham- 
medans ? Can you mention any contributions to civilization made by 
the Mohammedans ? 

IV. In what ways did the government aid the early Christian 
Church? How did the Church assist the government? In what ways 
do you think the churches assist the government today? How did the 
Bishop of Rome become the recognized head of the Church in the West ? 

V. What were the advantages of life in a monastery in the early 
Middle Ages ? What reasons existed then for this life which do not 
exist today? Describe a monastery and the life of the monks. What 
did the monks contribute to civilization? Describe some of their early 
missionary undertakings. 




CHAPTER XVI 



AGE OF DISORDER: FEUDALISM 



I. Conquests of Charlemagne 

324. How Pippin became King of the Franks (752). We have 
seen how the kings of the Franks conquered a large territory, 
including western Germany and what is called France toda}'. As 
time went on, the king's chief minister, who was called the Mayor 
of the Palace, got almost all the power into his hands and really 
ruled in the place of the king. Charles the Hammer, who de- 
feated the Mohammedans at Tours in 732 (§306), was the 
Mayor of the Palace of the western Frankish king. His son, 
Pippin the Short, finally determined to do away altogether with 
the old line of kings and put himself in their place. Before tak- 
ing the -decisive step, however, he consulted the Pope, who gave 
his approval. Pippin was then anointed king by St. Boniface, 
the apostle to the Germans, of whom we have spoken, and received 
the blessing of the Pope. 1 

325. Beginnings of Kingship by Divine Right. The kings of 
the German tribes had hitherto usually been successful warriors 
who held their office with the consent of the people, or at least of 

1 The old line of kings which was displaced by Pippin is known as the Merovingian 
line. Pippin and his successors are called the Carolingian line. 

204 



Age of Disorder : Feudalism • 205 

the nobles. Their election was not a matter that concerned the 
Church at all. But when, after asking the Pope's opinion, Pippin 
had the holy oil poured on his head, — in accordance with an 
ancient religious custom of the Jews, — he received the blessing and 
the approval of the Church. The Pope threatened with God's 
anger anyone who should attempt to supplant the consecrated 
family of Pippin. 

It thus became a religious duty to obey the king, for he was 
regarded by the Church as God's representative on earth. Here 
we have the beginning of the later theory of kings "by the grace 
of God," against whom it was a sin to revolt, however bad they 
might be. 

326. Charlemagne (ca. 742-814). Charlemagne, 1 the famous 
son of Pippin, became king of all the Frankish realms in 771. 
He is the first historical personage among the German peoples of 
whom we have any satisfactory knowledge. 

Charlemagne was an educated man for his time and one who 
knew how to appreciate and encourage scholarship. While at 
dinner he had someone read to him ; he delighted especially in 
history. He tried to learn writing, which was an unusual accom- 
plishment at that time for any except churchmen, but began too 
late in life and got no farther than signing his name. He called 
learned men to his court and did much toward reestablishing a 
regular system of schools. 

The impression which his reign made upon men's minds con- 
tinued to grow even after his death. He became the hero of a 
whole series of romantic adventures which were as firmly believed 
for centuries as his real deeds. A study of Charlemagne's reign 
will make clear that he was truly a remarkable person, one of the 
greatest figures in the world's records and deservedly the hero 
of the Middle Ages. 

327. Charlemagne's Idea of a Great Christian Empire. It 
was Charlemagne's ideal to bring all the German peoples together 

1 " Charlemagne " is the French form for the Latin Carolus Magnus (Charles the 
Great). We must never forget, however, that Charlemagne was not French ; he spoke 
a German language, namely Frankish, and his favorite palaces at Aix-la-Chapelle, Ingel- 
heim, and Nimwegen were in German regions. 



206 . General History of Europe 

into one great Christian empire. He turned his attention there- 
fore to the Saxons, who lay to the northeast of his realm and 
were a constant source of alarm. The Saxons were as yet 
pagans and lived under much the same institutions as Tacitus 
had described seven centuries earlier. They had no towns or 
roads and were consequently difficult to conquer, for they could 
easily retreat into the forests or swamps when they found them- 
selves in danger. Charlemagne never undertook during his long 
military career any other task half so serious as subjugating the 
Saxons, which occupied many years. He believed the Christian- 
izing of these people so important a part of his duty that heavy 
penalties were imposed on anyone who made vows in the pagan 
fashion at trees or springs, who partook of their religious feasts, 
or who failed to present infants for baptism before they were a 
year old. 

328. Charlemagne's Foreign Conquests. In 773 Charlemagne 
invaded Lombardy to protect the Pope from his enemies, took 
Pavia, the capital, and had himself recognized as king of the 
Lombards. In extending his empire Charlemagne had other 
peoples to deal with besides the Germans, namely the Slavs on the 
east (who were one day to build up the kingdoms of Poland and 
Bohemia and the vast Russian Empire) and the Mohammedan 
Moors in Spain. 

A single campaign in 789 seems to have been sufficient to sub- 
due the Slavs and force the Bohemians to acknowledge the Frank- 
ish king and to pay tribute to him. At the request of an embassy 
from certain dissatisfied Mohammedans, Charlemagne entered 
Spain and, after some years, conquered the region north of the 
Ebro. In this way Charlemagne began that gradual expulsion 
of the Mohammedans from the peninsula which was carried on 
until 1492, when Granada, the last Mohammedan stronghold, 
fell (§509). 

329. Charlemagne crowned Emperor by the Pope. But the 
most famous of all the achievements of Charlemagne was his 
reestablishment of the Western Empire in the year 800. Charle- 
magne went to Rome in that year to settle a dispute between 



Age of Disorder: Feudalism 207 

Pope Leo III and his enemies. To celebrate the satisfactory set- 
tlement of the difficulty the Pope held a solemn service on 
Christmas Day in St. Peter's, As Charlemagne was kneeling 
before the altar during this service the Pope approached him and 
set a crown upon his head, saluting him, amid the acclamations of 
those present, as "Emperor of the Romans." For inasmuch 
as Charlemagne held Rome itself in addition to his other pos- 
sessions in Italy, Gaul, and Germany, it seemed appropriate to all 
that he should assume this august title. 

330. Continuity of the Roman Empire. The empire thus 
reestablished in the West was considered to be a continuation of 
the Roman Empire founded by Augustus. Yet it is hardly neces- 
sary to say that the position of the new emperor had little in 
common with that of Augustus or Constantine. In the first place, 
the Eastern emperors continued to reign in Constantinople for 
centuries, quite regardless of Charlemagne and his successors. 
In the second place, the German kings who wore the imperial 
crown after Charlemagne were generally too weak really to rule 
over Germany and northern Italy, to say nothing of the rest of 
western Europe. 

II. Causes of Disorder after Charlemagne 

331. Division of Charlemagne's Empire. The task of govern- 
ing his vast dominions taxed even the highly gifted and untiring 
Charlemagne and was quite beyond the power of his successors. 
After his death (814) many attempts were made to divide the 
Empire peaceably among his descendants, but for generations 
they continued to fight over how much each should have. Finally 
it was agreed in 870, by the Treaty of Mersen, that there should 
be three states, — a West Frankish kingdom, an East Frankish 
kingdom, and a kingdom of Italy. The West Frankish realm 
corresponded roughly with the present boundaries of France and 
Belgium, and its people talked dialects derived from the spoken 
Latin; the East Frankish kingdom included the rest of Charle- 
magne's empire outside of Italy and was German in language. 



208 



General History of Europe 



332. Obstacles to maintaining Order. The Treaty of Mersen 
was followed by several centuries of continued disorder and local 
warfare. There were a number of difficulties which stood in the 
way of peace. In the first place, a king found it very hard to get 
rapidly from one part of his realms to another in order to put down 




Map of Treaty of Mersen 

This map shows the division of Charlemagne's empire made in 870 by his 
descendants in the Treaty of Mersen 



rebellions, for the Roman roads (§ 256), which had been so ad- 
mirably constructed, had fallen into disrepair, and the bridges 
had been carried away by floods. Besides, the king had very 
little money. There were not many gold or silver mines in western 
Europe, and there was no supply of precious metals from outside, 
for commerce with the Eastern countries had largely died out. So 
the king had no treasury from which to pay his many officials 
and had to give them land instead of money in return for their 
services. In this way they gradually became rulers themselves 
within their own possessions. 



Age of Disorder: Feudalism 209 

333. New Invasions. Moreover, frequent new invasions from 
all directions kept the three parts of Charlemagne's empire, and 
England besides, in a state of fear and disaster. The Moham- 
medans, who had got possession of northern Africa and of Spain, 
gained control of the island of Sicily shortly after Charlemagne's 
death and began to terrorize Italy and southern France. On the 
east the Slavs whom Charlemagne had defeated in his time con- 
tinued to make trouble, and the Hungarians, a savage race from 
Asia, penetrated into the Frankish kingdom. Finally they were 
driven back eastward and settled in the country now named after 
them — Hungary. 

334. The Northmen. Lastly there came the Northmen, 1 bold 
and adventurous pirates from the shores of Denmark, Sweden, 
and Norway, who not only attacked the towns on the coast of the 
West Frankish kingdom but made their way up the rivers, plun- 
dering and burning the villages and towns as far inland as Paris. 

So there was danger always and everywhere. If rival nobles 
were not fighting one another, there were foreign invaders of 
some kind devastating the country, bent on robbing, maltreat- 
ing, and enslaving the people whom they found in towns and 
villages and monasteries. No wonder that strong castles had to 
be built and the towns surrounded by walls. 

335. Medieval Fortresses controlled by Individuals. In the 
absence of a powerful king with a well-organized army to support 
him, each district was left to look out for itself, and the people 
came to depend on the nobles to protect them. 

The Romans had been accustomed to build walls around their 
camps, and a walled camp was called castra ; in such names 
as Rochester, Winchester, Gloucester, Worcester, we have re- 
minders of the fact that these towns were once fortresses. These 
camps, however, were all government fortifications and did not 
belong to private individuals ; but as the disorder caused by the 
incoming barbarians increased, the various counts and dukes and 
other large landowners began to build forts for themselves. 

1 These Scandinavian pirates are often called vikings, from their habit of leaving their 
long boats in the vik, which meant, in their language, " bay " or " inlet." 



210 



General History of Europe 



336. General Arrangement of a Castle. When the castle 
was not on a steep rocky hill, which made it very hard to ap- 
proach, a deep ditch was constructed outside the walls, called the 
moat. This was filled with water and crossed by a bridge, which 
could be drawn up when the castle was attacked, cutting off the 




A Medieval Castle near Klagenfurt, Austria 

It was not uncommon in mountainous regions to have fortresses perched 
so high on rocky eminences that it was practically impossible to capture them 



means of approach. The doorway was further protected by a grat- 
ing of heavy planks, called the portcullis, which could be quickly 
dropped down to close the entrance. Inside the castle walls was 
the great donjon, or chief tower. From the tiny windows in the 
towers the occupants were able to shoot arrows or pour melted 
pitch or lead on those attacking them. There was sometimes also 
a fine hall, as at Coucy (see cut facing page 212), and handsome 
rooms for the use of the lord and his family, although they 
sometimes lived in the donjon. There were buildings for storing 
supplies and arms, and usually a chapel. 



Age of Disorder: Feudalism 



211 



III. Feudal System and Neighborhood Warfare 

337. Gradual Development of Feudalism. Landholders who 
had large estates often found it to their advantage to grant some 
of their manors to other persons on condition that those receiving 
the land should pledge themselves to accompany him to war, 
guard his castle upon oc- 
casion, and assist him when 
he was put to any unusually 
great expense. It was in this 
way that the relation of lord 
and vassal originated. The 
vassal who received the land 
promised to be true to his 
lord, and the lord, on the 
other hand, not only let his 
vassal have the land but 
agreed to protect him when 
it was necessary. These ar- 
rangements between vassals 
and lords constituted what is 
called the feudal system. 

The feudal system, or feu- 
dalism, was not established 
by any decree of a king or in 
virtue of a general agreement 
between all the landowners. 
It grew up gradually and irregularly simply because it seemed con- 
venient under the circumstances. Land granted upon these terms 
was called a fief. One who held a fief might himself become a lord 
by granting a portion of his fief to a vassal upon terms similar 
to those upon which he held his lands of his lord, or suzerain. The 
vassal of a vassal was called a sub vassal. 

338. Homage and Fidelity. The one proposing to become a 
vassal knelt before the lord and rendered him homage 1 by placing 




Fortified Gate of a Medieval 
Castle 

Here one can see the way in which the 
entrance to a castle was carefully pro- 
tected: the moat (4) ; the drawbridge 
{B) ; the portcullis (C) 



1 " Homage " is derived from the Latin word homo, meaning " man." 



212 General History of Europe 

his hands between those of the lord and declaring himself the 
lord's "man" for such and such a fief. Thereupon the lord gave 
his vassal the kiss of peace and raised him from his kneeling pos- 
ture. Then the vassal swore an oath of fidelity upon the Bible, or 
some holy relic, solemnly binding himself to fulfill all his duties 
toward his lord. This act of rendering homage by placing the 
hands in those of the lord and taking the oath of fidelity was the 
first and most essential duty of the vassal. 

339. Feudal Obligations. The obligations of the vassal varied 
greatly. He was expected to join his lord when there was a 
military expedition, although it was generally the case that the 
vassal need not serve at his own expense for more than forty days. 

He was expected to attend the lord's court when summoned, 
where he sat with other vassals to hear and pronounce upon those 
cases in which his fellow vassals were involved. 

Under certain circumstances vassals had to make money pay- 
ments to their lord ; as, for instance, when the lord was put to 
extra expense by the necessity of knighting his eldest son or 
providing a dowry for his daughter, or when he was captured 
by an enemy and was held for ransom. Lastly, the vassal might 
have to entertain his lord, should he be passing his castle. 

340. Various Kinds of Fiefs. There were fiefs of all grades 
of importance, from that of a duke or count, who held directly 
of the king and exercised the powers of a practically independent 
prince, down to the holding of the simple knight, whose bit of 
land was barely sufficient to enable him to support himself and 
provide the horse upon which he rode. 

It is essential to observe that the fief became hereditary in the 
family of the vassal and passed down to the eldest son from one 
generation to another. So long as the vassal remained faithful 
to his lord and performed the stipulated services, and his succes- 
sors did homage and continued to meet the conditions upon which 
the fief had originally been granted, neither the lord nor his heirs 
could rightfully regain possession of the land. 

The result was that little was left to the original owner of the 
fief except the services and dues to which the practical owner, 




Coucy-le-Chateau 



This castle of Coucy-le-Chateau was built by a vassal of the king of France 
in the thirteenth century. It was at the end of a hill and protected on all 
sides but one by steep cliffs. One can see the moat (A) and the double draw- 
bridge and towers which protected the portal. The round donjon (B) was 
probably the largest in the world, one hundred feet in diameter and two 
hundred and ten feet high. At the base its walls were thirty-four feet 
thick. At the end of the inner court (C) was the residence of the lord (D). 
To the left of the court was a great hall and to the right were the quarters 
of the garrison. This ancient building was destroyed by the Germans during 

• the recent World War 




Movable Tower 

This attacking tower was rolled up to the wall of the besieged tower after the 

moat had been filled up at the proper point. The soldiers then swarmed 

up the outside and over a bridge onto the wall. Skins of animals were 

hung on the side to prevent the tower from being set on fire 



Age of Disorder : Feudalism 213 

the vassal, had agreed in receiving it. In short, the fief came 
really to belong to the vassal, and only the shadow of ownership 
remained in the hands of the lord. 

341. Subvassals of the King not under his Control. Ob- 
viously the great vassals who held directly of the king became 
almost independent of him as soon as their fiefs were granted 
to them and their descendants. Their vassals, since they had not 
done homage to the king himself, often paid little attention to 
his commands. From the ninth to the thirteenth century the 
king of France or the king of Germany did not rule over a great 
realm occupied by subjects who owed him obedience as their 
lawful sovereign, paid him taxes, and were bound to fight under 
his banner as the head of the State. As a feudal landlord himself 
the king had a right to demand fidelity and certain services from 
those who were his vassals. But the great mass of the people over 
whom he nominally ruled, whether they belonged to the nobility 
or not, owed little to the king directly, because they lived upon the 
lands of other feudal lords more or less independent of him. 

342. War the Law of the Feudal World. One has only to 
read a chronicle of the time to discover that brute force ruled 
everywhere outside of the Church. The feudal obligations were 
not fulfilled except when the lord was sufficiently powerful to 
enforce them. The oath of fidelity was constantly broken, and 
faith was violated by both vassal and lord. 

We may say that war, in all its forms, was the law of the 
feudal world. War formed the chief occupation of the restless 
nobles who held the land and were supposed to govern it. The 
feudal bonds, instead of offering a guarantee of peace and con- 
cord, appear to have been a constant cause of violent ill-feeling 
and conflict. Everyone was bent upon profiting to the full by 
the weakness of his neighbor. 

In theory, the lord could force his vassals to settle their dis- 
putes in an orderly manner before his court; but often he was 
neither able nor inclined to bring about a peaceable adjustment, 
and he would frequently have found it hard to enforce the 
decisions of his own court. So the vassals were left to fight out 



214 General History of Europe 

their quarrels among themselves, and they found their chief 
interest in life in so doing. 

343. The "Truce of God." The horrors of this constant fight- 
ing led the Church to try to check it. About the year iooo several 
Church councils in southern France decreed that the fighters were 
not to attack churches or monasteries, churchmen, pilgrims, mer- 
chants, or women, and that they must leave the peasant and his 
cattle and plow alone. Then Church councils began to issue what 
was known as the " Truce of God," which provided that all war- 
fare was to stop during Lent and various other holy days as well 
as on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of every week. 
During the truce no one was to attack anyone else. Those be- 
sieging castles were to refrain from any assaults during the period 
of peace, and people were to be allowed to go quietly to and fro 
on their business without being disturbed by soldiers. 

If anyone failed to observe the truce, he was to be excommuni- 
cated by the Church. This meant that if he fell sick no Christian 
should dare to visit him ; on his deathbed he was not to receive the 
comfort of a priest, and his soul was consigned to hell if he had 
refused to repent and mend his ways. It is hard to say how much 
good the Truce of God accomplished. It is certain that many dis- 
orderly lords paid little attention to the truce and found three days 
a week altogether too short a time for plaguing their neighbors. 

344. The Kings finally get the Better of the Feudal Lords. 
We must not infer that the State ceased to exist altogether during 
the centuries of confusion that followed the break-up of Charle- 
magne's empire, or that it fell entirely apart into little local 
governments independent of each other. The king, solemnly 
anointed by the Church, was always something more than a 
feudal lord. The kings were destined to get th£ upper hand be- 
fore many centuries in England, France, and Spain, and finally in 
Italy and Germany, and to destroy the castles behind whose 
walls their haughty nobles had long defied the royal power. 



Age of Disorder: Feudalism 



215 



QUESTIONS 

I. How did the election of Pippin differ essentially from that of 
earlier German kings ? Why is a monarch approved by the Church 
more powerful than one elected by the people? Can you give any 
modern examples of kings by divine right? Why is Charlemagne a 
heroic figure in medieval history ? How did Charlemagne build up an 
empire in western Europe ? What is meant by Charlemagne's reestab- 
lishment of the Roman Empire in the West? 

II. How was Charlemagne's empire finally divided after his death? 
What were the general causes for disorder during the ninth and tenth 
centuries ? Who were the chief new invaders ? Explain the origin of 
the medieval nobles. Describe a medieval castle. 

III. Describe the conditions which led to the development of the 
feudal system. What advantages did the lord and the vassal derive 
from their relationship ? How did the feudal system affect the power 
of the king ? Why was neighborhood warfare common in this period ? 
In what ways did the Church attempt to check the constant fighting ? 



Note. This castle of Pierrefonds, not very far from Paris, was built by the brother 
of the king of France, about 1400. It has been carefully restored and gives one a good 
idea of a fortress of the period. 







CHAPTER XVII 

POPES, EMPERORS, AND PRINCES IN THE MIDDLE AGES 

I. Origin of the Holy Roman Empire 

345. Otto the Great (936-973). The East Frankish, or German 
part, of Charlemagne's empire had, after his death, fallen apart 
into big and little fiefs, and the various dukes and counts were 
constantly making war on each other and on their weak kings. 
The first German ruler, after Charlemagne, who gained much dis- 
tinction was Otto the Great, who came to the throne in 936. He 
repelled the Hungarians, who had been a constant menace, and 
forced them back into eastern Europe, where they settled and 
finally built up the modern Hungarian state. Otto was having 
plenty of trouble to keep his vassals under his control, but never- 
theless he determined to try to add northern Italy to his realms 
and succeeded in being acknowledged king of Italy. Later the 
Pope, needing protection from his enemies, called Otto to Rome, 
and, in return for his assistance, crowned him emperor, as Charle- 
magne's successor, in the year 962. 

The coronation of Otto was a very important event for Ger- 
many ; for from this time onward the German rulers, who had 
quite enough to do to keep their own vassals in order, were con- 
stantly distracted by efforts to keep their hold on their Italian 
possessions, which lay on the other side of the great mountain 
range of the Alps. 

346. The Holy Roman Empire. Otto's successors dropped 
their old title of king of the East Franks as soon as they had been 
duly crowned by the Pope at Rome, and assumed the magnificent 
and all-embracing designation, "Emperor Ever August of the 
Romans." Their "Holy Roman Empire," as it came to be called 
later, was to endure, in name at least, for more than eight centuries, 

216 



Popes, Emperors, and Princes in the Middle Ages 217 

but it was obviously even -less like that of the ancient Romans 
than Charlemagne's had been. As kings of Germany and Italy 
these rulers had practically all the powers that they enjoyed as 
emperors. The title of emperor was of course a proud one, although 
it gave the German kings no additional power except the fatal 
right that they claimed of taking part in the election of the Pope. 
We shall find that, instead of making themselves feared at home 
and building up a great state, the German emperors wasted their 
strength in a long struggle with the popes, who proved themselves, 
in the end, far stronger and finally reduced the Empire to a mere 
shadow. 

347. Lands of the Church drawn into the Feudal System. 
In order to understand the long struggle between the German 
rulers and the popes, we must recollect that great tracts of land 
had been given by princes and dukes, counts, and other great 
landed proprietors to the Church for the support of the bishop- 
rics and monasteries. These lands of the churchmen were drawn 
into the feudal system described in the previous chapter. Bishops 
might become vassals of the king or other feudal lords by doing 
homage for a fief and swearing fidelity, like any other vassal. 
The abbots might hold the lands of a monastery as a fief. 

But the bishops and abbots were forbidden by the rules of the 
Church to marry, so they could not hand down their possessions 
to their children. Consequently, when a bishop or abbot who held 
a fief died, someone had to be chosen in his place to succeed to 
the fief and perform the duties attached to the position. 

348. Investiture. The bishops were, according to the rules of 
the Church, to be chosen by the clergy of their bishopric, and 
the abbot of a monastery by the monks. Their feudal superiors 
insisted, however, in having their say in elections, and from the 
time of Otto the Great on both bishops and abbots were com- 
monly selected to all intents and purposes by the emperor or 
other feudal lords. 

When a bishop or abbot had been duly chosen, the feudal' lord 
proceeded to the investiture. The new bishop or abbot first be- 
came the "man" of the lord by doing him homage (§ 338), and 



218 General History of Europe 

then the lord transferred to him the. lands and rights attached 
to the office. No careful distinction appears to have been made 
between the property and the religious powers. The lord often 
conferred both by bestowing upon a bishop the ring and the 
crosier (the bishop's pastoral staff), the emblems of religious au- 
thority. It seemed shocking enough that the king or feudal lord, 
who was often a rough soldier, should dictate the selection of 
the bishops ; but it was still more shocking that he should assume 
to confer religious powers with religious emblems. 

349. The Marriage of the Clergy. Still another danger threat- 
ened the wealth and resources of the Church. During the tenth 
and eleventh centuries the rule' of the Church prohibiting the 
clergy from marrying appears to have been widely neglected in 
Italy, Germany, France, and England. It was obvious that the 
property of the Church would soon be dispersed if the clergy were 
allowed to marry, since they would wish to provide for their chil- 
dren. Just as the feudal lands had become hereditary (§ 340), 
so the church lands would become hereditary unless the clergy 
were forced to remain unmarried. 

350. Task of the Popes. A hundred years after the time of 
Otto the Great it seemed as if the Church would be dragged down 
by its property into the anarchy of feudalism. But the popes 
assumed ths gigantic task of making the Church a great inter- 
national monarchy, like the former Roman Empire, with its capi- 
tal at Rome. The control of the feudal lords over the selection of 
the clergy must be reduced or abolished, the marriage of the 
clergy prohibited, and the corruption connected with Church of- 
fices checked. The first great move of the Pope was the decree 
of 1059 depriving the emperor of the right he claimed to control 
the election of the Pope and putting the choice in the hands of 
the cardinals. These were the representatives of the clergy of the 
city of Rome, and in their hands the election of the Pope has 
legally rested ever since. 

351. Gregory VII and his Dictatus. In 1073 the most cele- 
brated of the medieval popes, Gregory VII (often called Hilde- 
brand), ascended the papal throne. Among his writings is a brief 



Popes, Emperors, and Princes in the Middle Ages 219 

statement, called the Dictatus, in which he sets forth the powers 
which he believed God had conferred on the papacy. The Pope, 
or Bishop of Rome, had, he claims, the right to depose or transfer 
any other bishop. No Church council could be regarded as speak- 
ing for Christendom without the Pope's ratification ; no religious 




Medieval Pictures of Gregory VII 

These pictures are taken from an illustrated manuscript written some decades 
after Gregory's death. In the one on the left Gregory is represented blowing 
out a candle and saying to his cardinals, "As I blow out this light, so will 
Henry IV be extinguished." In the one on the right is shown the death of 
Gregory (1085). He did not wear his crown in bed, but the artist wanted 
us to be sure to recognize that he was Pope 



book should be deemed authoritative without his approval ; no 
one might be considered a Catholic Christian who did not yield 
obedience to the commands of the Roman Mother Church. 

Gregory does not stop with asserting the Pope's complete 
supremacy over the Church. He says that "the Pope is the only 
person whose feet are kissed by all princes" ; that he may depose 
emperors and "absolve subjects from allegiance to an unjust 
ruler." No one shall dare to condemn one who appeals to the 
Pope. No one may annul a decree of the Pope, though the Pope 
may declare null and void the decrees of all other earthly powers ; 
and no one may pass judgment upon his acts. 



220 General History of Europe 

II. The Long Struggle between Popes and Emperors 

352. Struggle over Investiture between Henry IV and Greg- 
ory VII. The popes who immediately preceded Gregory had 
more than once forbidden the churchmen to receive investiture 
from laymen. Gregory reissued this prohibition in 1075. * n f° r ~ 
bidding investiture by laymen Gregory attempted nothing less 
than a revolution. The bishops and abbots were often officers of 
government, exercising in Germany and Italy powers similar in 
all respects to those of the counts. The German king not only 
relied upon them for advice and assistance in carrying on his gov- 
ernment but they were among his chief allies in his constant 
struggles with his vassals. 

This act of Gregory's led to a long and bitter struggle between 
the popes and German rulers, lasting for two hundred years. 
Gregory's legates so irritated the young German king Henry IV 
that he had the Pope deposed as a wicked man (1076). 

353. Gregory VII Deposes Henry IV. Gregory's reply to 
Henry and the German bishops who had deposed him was speedy 
and decisive. "Incline thine ear to us, O Peter, chief of the 
Apostles. As thy representative and by thy favor has the power 
been granted especially to me by God of binding and loosing in 
heaven and earth [compare §309]. ... I withdraw, through 
thy power and authority, from Henry the King, who has risen 
against thy Church with unheard-of insolence, the rule over the 
whole kingdom of the Germans and over Italy. I absolve all 
Christians from the bonds of the oath which they have sworn, 
or may swear, to him ; and I forbid anyone to serve him as king." 

354. Henry IV at Canossa (1077). After the Pope deposed 
Henry his vassals turned against him. He was so discouraged 
that he hastened across the Alps in midwinter and appeared as a 
humble suppliant before the castle of Canossa, where Gregory VII 
was sojourning. The Pope kept him waiting three days barefoot 
and in the coarse garments of a pilgrim before he would admit 
him. He then agreed to forgive him for the moment. The spec- 
tacle of a mighty prince of distinguished appearance in tears 



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EUROPE ANI> THE OKEEKT 
IN 1096 

Ontlie eve of the Crusades s " f ^ 

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Longitude East 10° from Greenwich 



Popes, Emperors, and Princes in the Middle Ages 221 

before a man of small stature who humbly styled himself "the 
servant of the servants of God" has always been regarded as 
typifying the power of the medieval Church when directed against 
even the most exalted rulers of the earth. 

355. Concordat of Worms (1122). The famous scene at 
Canossa settled nothing, however, and the struggle went on after 
the death of both Gregory and Henry IV. Finally a settlement was 
reached at the town of Worms which ended the controversy over 
investitures. The churchmen were to elect their bishops and 
abbots and confer on them their religious powers. The German 
king or emperor, on the other hand, was to invest the new bishop 
or abbot with his fiefs and governmental powers by a touch of the 
scepter. The king in a way still retained his control, for he could 
always refuse to hand over the lands unless he was pleased with 
the person chosen by the churchmen. 

358. Frederick I (Barbarossa) of Hohenstaufen (1152-1190). 
A generation after the Concordat of Worms the most famous of 
German emperors, next to Charlemagne, came to the throne. This 
was Frederick I, commonly referred to as Barbarossa (from his red 
beard). He belonged to the family of Hohenstaufen, so called 
from their castle in southern Germany. Frederick's ambition was 
to restore the Roman Empire to its old glory and influence. He 
regarded himself as the successor of the Caesars, as well as of 
Charlemagne and Otto the Great. He believed his office to be 
quite as truly established by God himself as the papacy. 

He met all the old difficulties in his life-long attempt to build 
up a strong empire, in which he strove to include northern Italy. 
He failed in this attempt and died on his way to take part in a 
crusade to regain the Holy Land. 

357. Frederick II and Southern Italy. His gifted grandson 
Frederick II had married the heiress to the kingdoms of Naples 
and Sicily, and here he built up a strong modern state far from 
Germany. But the popes feared the new state to the south of 
them, and shortly after the death of Frederick II they called in a 
French prince, to whom they turned over the Italian possessions 
of the Hohenstaufen. 



222 General History of Europe 

358. Conditions in Germany and Italy. With the death of 
Frederick II in 1250 the medieval German Empire may be said 
to have come to an end. Rudolph of Hapsburg was made king 
in 1273, but Germany was not really a country but a confused 
mass of duchies, counties, archbishoprics, bishoprics, abbacies, and 
free towns. They paid little attention to their kings, who con- 
tinued to claim the title of emperor but rarely went to Rome to 
be crowned. 

Italy was also divided up into practically independent states, 
the Lombard towns to the north, the papal possessions across the 
middle of the peninsula, and, to the south, Naples, which re- 
mained under its French dynasty for a time, and the kingdom of 
Sicily, which drifted into the hands of a Spanish house. 

III. Organization and Powers of the Church 

359. General Character of the Medieval Church. In the 
preceding pages it has been necessary to refer constantly to the 
Church and the clergy. Indeed without them medieval history 
would become almost a blank, for the Church was incomparably 
the most important institution of the time, and the popes, bishops, 
and abbots were the soul of nearly every great enterprise. We 
have already had abundant proofs that the medieval Church was 
very different from our modern churches, whether Catholic or 
Protestant. 

1. In the first place, everyone was required to belong to it, 
just as we all must belong to some country today. One was not 
born into the Church, it is true, but he was ordinarily baptized 
into it when he was a mere infant. All western Europe formed 
a single religious association, from which it was a crime to revolt. 
To refuse allegiance to the Church, or to question its authority 
or teachings, was regarded as treason against God — the most 
terrible of crimes — and was punishable, according to the laws of 
the time, with death (§395). 

2. The medieval Church did not rely for its support, as 
churches usually must today, upon the voluntary contributions 



Popes, Emperors, and Princes in the Middle Ages 223 

of its members. It enjoyed, in addition to the revenue from its 
vast tracts of lands and a great variety of fees, the income from 
a regular tax, the tithe. Those upon whom this fell were forced 
to pay it, just as we all must now pay taxes imposed by the 

government. 

3. It is clear, moreover, that the medieval Church was not 
merely a religious body, as churches are today. Of course it 
maintained places of worship, conducted devotional exercises, and 
cultivated the religious life; but it did far more. It was, in a 
way, a State, for it had an elaborate system of law and its own 
courts, in which it tried many cases which are now settled in our 
ordinary courts. One may get some idea of the business of the 
Church courts from the fact that the Church possessed the right 
to try all cases in which a clergyman was implicated, or anyone 
connected with the Church or under its special protection, such 
as monks, students, crusaders, widows, orphans, and the helpless. 
Then all cases where the rites of the Church, or its prohibitions, 
were involved came ordinarily before the Church courts, as, for 
example, those concerning marriage, wills, sworn contracts, usury, 
blasphemy, sorcery, heresy, and so forth. The Church even had 
its prisons, to which it might sentence offenders for life, if they 
were convicted of serious heresy. 

4 The Church not only performed the functions of a State, 
it had the organization of a State. Unlike the Protestant min- 
isters of today, all churchmen and religious associations of medie- 
val Europe were under one supreme head, the Pope, who made 
laws for all, and controlled every church officer, wherever he 
might be, whether in Italy or Germany, Spain or Ireland. The 
whole Church had one official language, Latin, in which all com- 
munications were written and in which its services were every- 
where conducted. 

The control of the Pope over all parts of the Christian Church 
was exercised by his legates. These papal ambassadors were in- 
trusted with great powers. Their haughty mien sometimes of- 
fended the prelates and rulers to whom they brought home the 
authority of the Pope. 



224 General History of Europe 

The task assumed by the Pope of governing the whole Western 
world naturally made it necessary to create a large body of 
officials at Rome in order to transact all the multiform business 
and prepare and transmit the innumerable legal documents. The 
cardinals and the Pope's officials constituted what was called the 
.papal curia, or court. To carry on his government and to meet 
the expenses of palace and retinue, the Pope had need of a vast 
income. This was supplied from various sources. 

360. Reasons for the Great Power of Clergymen in the Mid- 
dle Ages. The influence of the clergy was greatly increased by 
the fact that they alone were educated. For six or seven centuries 
after the break-up of the Roman Empire very few outside of the 
clergy ever dreamed of studying, or even of learning to read and 
write. Even in the thirteenth century an offender who wished to 
prove that he belonged to the clergy, in order that he might 
be tried by a Church court, had only to show that he could read 
a single line ; for it was assumed by the judges that no one uncon- 
nected with the Church could read at all. 

It was inevitable, therefore, that all the teachers were clergy- 
men, that almost all the books were written by priests and monks, 
and that the clergy were the ruling power in all intellectual, artis- 
tic, and literary matters — the chief guardians and promoters of 
civilization.' Moreover, the civil government was forced to rely 
upon churchmen to write out the public documents and proclama- 
tions. The priests and monks held the pen for the king. Repre- 
sentatives of the clergy sat in the king's councils and acted as his 
ministers ; in fact, the conduct of the government largely devolved 
upon them. 

361. Excommunication and Interdict. No wonder that the 
churchmen were by far the most powerful class in the Middle 
Ages. They controlled great wealth ; they were the most highly 
educated class ; it was believed they held the keys of the kingdom 
of heaven and without their aid no one could hope to enter in. 
By excommunication they could cast out the enemies of the 
Church and could forbid all men to associate with them, since 
they were accursed. By means of the interdict they could suspend 



Popes, Emperors, and Princes in the Middle Ages 225 

all religious ceremonies in a whole city or country by closing the 
church doors and prohibiting all public services. 

362. Chief Sources of Difficulty between Church and State. 
But as the period of feudal disorder drew to an end, and the 
kings and other rulers got the better of the feudal lords and 
established peace in their realms, they began to think that the 
Church had become too powerful and too rich. Certain difficulties 
arose of which the following were the most important : 

1. Should the king or the Pope have the right of selecting 
the bishops and the abbots of rich monasteries? Naturally both 
were anxious to place their friends and supporters in these in- 
fluential positions. Moreover, the Pope, like the king, could claim 
a considerable contribution from those whom he appointed. 

2. How far might the king venture to tax the lands and other 
property of the Church? Was this vast amount of wealth to go 
on increasing and yet make no contribution to the support of 
the government ? The churchmen usually urged that they needed 
all their money to carry on the church services, keep up the 
churches and monasteries, take care of the schools, and aid the 
poor, for the State left them to bear all these necessary burdens. 
The law of the Church permitted the churchmen to make vol- 
untary gifts to the king when there was urgent necessity. 

3. Then there was disagreement over the cases to be tried in the 
Church courts and the claim of churchmen to be tried only by 
clergymen. Above all was the habit of appealing cases to Rome, 
for the Pope would often decide the matter in exactly the opposite 
way from that in which the king's court had decided it. 

4. Lastly, there was the question of how far the Pope as head 
of the Christian Church had a right to interfere with the govern- 
ment of a particular state when he did not approve of the way 
in which a king was acting. The powers of the Pope were very 
great, everyone admitted, but even the most devout Catholics 
differed somewhat as to just how great they were. 

We have seen some illustrations of these troubles in the case 
of the popes and the German emperors. Many others might be 
given were there space to do so. 



226 General History of Europe 

363. Babylonian Captivity and Great Schism (1305-1415). By 
the year 1300 the kings of England and France were coming into 
a position to enforce their claims against the Church. The power 
of the popes was weakened for various reasons, and finally the 
French king was able to get the seat of the papacy transferred 
from Rome to Avignon, a city on his frontier. Here the popes 
remained for over seventy years (1305-1377). This Babylonian 
Captivity, as it is called, was followed by a series of disputed 
elections, — the "Great Schism," — during which Europe was di- 
vided on the question as to who was the rightful Pope. Finally, in 
the fifteenth century, the popes once more regained a considerable 
part of the influence over European affairs that they had enjoyed 
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and returned to their 
ancient capital. 

QUESTIONS 

I. How did the king of the East Franks come to have the title of 
Emperor of the Romans ? What was the Holy Roman Empire ? How 
was the Church drawn into the feudal system ? In what ways did the 
feudal system threaten the prestige and resources of the Church ? What 
measures did the Church take to meet these difficulties ? How is the 
Pope elected today ? What is the college of cardinals ? What were the 
powers of the Pope as claimed in the Dictatus of Gregory VII ? Has 
the Pope more or less power today than he had in the time of 
Gregory VII? 

II. Give an account of the famous struggle between Henry IV and 
Gregory. How was the question of investiture finally settled? How 
did the medieval German Empire come to an end ? 

III. Give a picture of the medieval Church at the height of its 
power. In what ways did it resemble an international state? Why 
was the clergy so important in the Middle Ages ? What were the chief 
sources of difference between Church and State ? What was the Baby- 
lonian Captivity? 



CHAPTER XVIII 
ENGLAND AND FRANCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 

I. The Norman Conquest 

364. Peculiar Interest of English History. The history of 
England is naturally of especial interest to all English-speaking 
peoples, for it is from the English that they have derived their 
language, their habits of thought, much of their literature, and 
many of their laws and institutions. In this volume it will, how- 
ever, be possible to study England only as it played a part in 
general European history. 

365. The Danes and Alfred the Great (87i-9oi). The conquest 
of Britain by the Angles and Saxons and their conversion to 
Christianity by Augustine and his monks has already been spoken 
of (§§321-322). These invasions had scarcely come to an end 
before the Northmen (or Danes, as the English called them), who 
were ravaging France (§ 334), began to make incursions into 
England. They were defeated, however, by Alfred the Great, 
the first English king of whom we know much. Alfred forced the 
Danes to accept Christianity and keep out of southern England. 
But the Danes continued to make trouble, and finally a Danish 
king (Cnut) succeeded in making himself king of all England in 
1017. The Danish dynasty did not last many years and was suc- 
ceeded by a weak Saxon king, Edward the Confessor. 

Upon his death one of the greatest events in English history 
occurred. The most powerful of the vassals of the king of France 
crossed the English Channel, conquered England, and made him- 
self its king. This was William the Conqueror. 

366. France in the Middle Ages. The old West Frankish 
kingdom, which we shall now call France, was, like Germany, 

227 



228 General History of Europe 

divided up among a great many dukes and counts who built strong 
castles, gathered armies, and paid little attention to their kings. 
In the tenth century certain great fiefs, like Normandy, Brit- 
tany, Flanders, and Burgundy, developed into little nations, each 
under its line of able rulers. These little feudal states were cre- 
ated by certain families of nobles who possessed exceptional 
energy or statesmanship. By conquest, purchase, or marriage 
they increased the number of their fiefs, and they insured their 
control over their vassals by promptly destroying the castles of 
those who refused to meet their obligations. 

367. Normandy. Of these subnations none was more impor- 
tant or interesting than Normandy. The Northmen had been the 
scourge of those who lived near the North Sea for many years 
before one of their leaders, Rollo (or Hrolf), agreed, in 911, to 
accept from the West Frankish king a district on the coast, north 
of Brittany, where he and his followers might peacefully settle. 
Rollo assumed the title of Duke of the Normans and introduced 
the Christian religion among his people. The newcomers for a 
considerable time kept up their Scandinavian habits and language, 
but gradually appropriated such culture as their neighbors pos- 
sessed, and by the twelfth century their capital, Rouen, was one 
of the most enlightened cities of Europe. 

368. Battle of Hastings (1066). Just what William's claims 
to England were is not very clear, and it makes little difference. 
The main thing to know is that many ships were building in the 
Norman harbors in the spring and summer of 1066, and many 
adventurers readily flocked to William's standard when it became 
known that he proposed to invade England. The Normans and 
the English met on the field of Hastings. The English were led by 
Harold, the successor of Edward the Confessor, who made a brave 
stand, but was killed and his troops routed by the Norman cav- 
alry and their excellent bowmen. William managed to induce a 
number of influential nobles and several bishops to accept him 
as king, now that Harold was dead. London opened its gates to 
him, and on Christmas Day, 1066, he was solemnly elected king 
by an assembly in Westminster Abbey, and duly crowned. 



England and France in the Middle Ages 229 



369. William's Policy in England. The English who had re- 
fused to join him before the battle of Hastings were declared to 
have forfeited their lands, but were permitted to keep them upon 
condition of receiving them back from the new king as his vassals. 
The lands of those who actually fought against him at Hastings, 
or in later rebellions, were 
seized and redistributed 
among his faithful fol- 
lowers, both Norman and 
English. 

William declared that 
he did not propose to 
change the English cus- 
toms but to govern as 
Edward the Confessor had 
done. He maintained the 
Witenagemot, a council 
made up of bishops and 
nobles, whose advice the 
Saxon kings had sought 
in all important matters. 
He avoided giving to any 
one person a great many 
estates in a single region, 
so that no one should 
thus become inconven- 
iently powerful. Finally, in order to secure the support of the 
smaller landholders and to prevent combinations against him 
among the greater ones, he required every landowner in England 
to take an oath of fidelity directly to him, instead of having only 
a few great landowners as vassals who had their own subvassals 
under their own control, as in France (§366). 

370. General Results of the Norman Conquest. It is clear 
that the Norman Conquest was not a simple change of kings, but 
that a new element was added to the English people. We cannot 
tell how many Normans actually emigrated across the Channel, 




Norman Gateway at Bristol, England 

This beautiful gateway was originally the 

entrance to a monastery, begun in 1142. It 

is one of the finest examples of the Norman 

style of building to be seen in England 



230 



General History of Europe 



but they evidently came in 
considerable numbers, and 
their influence upon the 
English habits and govern- 
ment was very great. A 
century after William's con- 
quest the whole body of the 
nobility, the bishops, the 
abbots, and the government 
officials had become practi- 
cally all Norman. Besides 
these, the architects who 
built the castles and fort- 
resses, the cathedrals and 
abbeys, came from Nor- 
mandy. Merchants from the 
Norman cities of Rouen and 
Caen settled in London 
and other English cities, and 
weavers from Flanders set- 
tled in various towns and 
even in the country. 

For a time these newcom- 
ers remained a separate 
people, but by the year 1200 
they had become for the 
most part indistinguish- 
able from the great mass 
of English people among 
whom they had come. 

They had nevertheless 
introduced among the in- 
habitants of England a new and important element which made 
the nation more energetic, active-minded, and varied in its 
occupations and interests than it had been before the Conquest. 




Choir of Canterbury Cathedral 

This was destroyed by fire four years 
after Thomas Becket was murdered there. 
It was soon rebuilt under Henry II. The 
lower rows of arches are the old round 
kind, while the upper row shows how the 
pointed arch was coming in. (See § 429) 




The Plantagenet Possessions in England and France 



232 General History of Europe 

II. Henry II and the Plantagenets 

371. Henry II (1 154-1 189). After William's death there was 
a great deal of disorder for two generations, and when his great- 
grandson, Henry II, came to the throne in 11 54 he found the 
kingdom in a melancholy condition. He had need of all his 
energy and quickness of mind to restore order in England and 
at the same time rule his wide realms in France, which he had 
either inherited or acquired by marriage with a French heiress. 

In order to put an end to the constant feuds and fighting he 
reorganized the courts, and his judges made regular circuits to try 
cases. The grand jury was introduced to bring accusations against 
criminals and disturbers of the peace. But the method of trial 
by a jury of twelve men, so familiar to us now, does not seem 
to have been introduced until a century later. The decisions of 
Henry's judges were based on old English customs, not on the 
Roman law, and the foundations of the English common law 
were laid in this way. 

372. Henry II and Thomas Becket. Henry tried to reduce 
the powers of the Church courts, and in order to insure his con- 
trol of the English clergy he had a friend of his, Thomas Becket, 
made archbishop of Canterbury. But Becket refused to forward 
the king's plans for reducing the clergy's influence, and after a 
great deal of misunderstanding Becket was finally murdered in 
his own cathedral by some of Henry's knights, who thought that 
they were doing the king a favor. Henry was filled with remorse, 
and had to make terms with the papal legates by promising to 
return to Canterbury all the property of the Church he had con- 
fiscated and by pledging himself to go on a crusade. 

373. The French Possessions of the Plantagenets. Henry II 
spent a great part of his time across the Channel in his French 
possessions. A glance at the accompanying map will show that 
rather more than half of his realms lay to the south of the 
English Channel. He controlled more territory in France than 
the French king himself. As great-grandson of William the 



England and France in the Middle Ages 233 



Conqueror 1 he inherited the duchy of Normandy and the suze- 
rainty over Brittany. His mother, Matilda, had married the count 
of Anjou and Maine, so that Henry II inherited these fiefs along 
with those which had belonged to William the Conqueror. Lastly, 
he had married Eleanor, heiress of the dukes of Guienne, and in 
this way doubled the extent of his French lands. Henry II and 
his successors are known as the " Plantagenets," owing to the habit 
that his father, the count of Anjou, had of wearing a bit of broom 
(Latin, planta genista) in his helmet. 

So it came about that the French kings beheld a new State, 
under an able and energetic ruler, developing within their borders 
and including more than half the territory over which they were 
supposed to rule. A few years before Henry II died an am- 
bitious monarch, Philip Augustus, ascended the French throne 
and made it the chief business of his life to get control of his 
feudal vassals— above all, the Plantagenets. 

374. Richard the Lion-Hearted. So long as Henry II lived 
there was little chance of expelling the Plantagenets from France ; 
but with the accession of his reckless son Richard the Lion- 
Hearted the prospects of the French king brightened wonder- 
fully. Richard is one of the most famous of medieval knights, 
but he was a very poor ruler. He left his kingdom to take care 

1 William the Conqueror, king of England (1066-1087) 



William II (Rufus) 
(1087-1100) 



Henry I (1100-1135) 

Matilda (d. 1167) 
m. Geoffrey Plantagenet 
count of Anjou 

Henry II (1154-1189) 

the first Plantagenet king 

m. Eleanor of Aquitaine 



Adela, m. Stephen 
count of Blois 

Stephen (1135-1154) 



Richard 
(11S9-1199) 



Geoffrey (d. 11S6) 

I 
Arthur 



John 
(1199-1216) 

Henry III 
(1216-1272) 



234 General History of Europe 

of itself while he went upon a crusade to the Holy Land (§389). 
When Richard returned, after several years of romantic adventure, 
he found himself involved in a war with Philip Augustus, in the 
midst of which he died. 

375. John loses the French Possessions of his House. Rich- 
ard's younger brother John, who bears the reputation of being 
the most despicable of English kings, speedily gave Philip good 
excuses for seizing a great part of the Plantagenet lands. Philip 
Augustus, as John's suzerain, summoned him to appear at the 
French court to answer certain ugly charges of murder and 
violence. Upon John's refusal to appear or to do homage for his 
continental possessions, Philip caused his court to issue a decree 
confiscating almost all of the Plantagenet lands, leaving to the 
English king only the southwest corner of France (duchy of 
Guienne). 

376. King John becomes a Vassal of the Pope. John became 
involved in a controversy with Pope Innocent III, one of the 
mightiest rulers of the Middle Ages, over the selection of an arch- 
bishop of Canterbury. In his anger he finally drove the monks of 
Canterbury out of the country. 

Innocent replied by placing England under the interdict ; that 
is to say, he ordered the clergy to close all the churches and 
suspend all public services — a very terrible thing to the people 
of the time. John was excommunicated, and the Pope threatened 
that unless the king submitted to his wishes he would depose 
him and give his crown to Philip Augustus of France. As Philip 
made haste to collect an army for the conquest of England, John 
humbly submitted to the Pope in 12 13. He went so far as to 
hand England over to Innocent III and receive it back as a fief, 
thus becoming the vassal of the Pope. He agreed also to send 
a yearly tribute to Rome. 

377. Granting of the Great Charter (1215). The most perma- 
nently important event of John's reign was the granting of the 
Great Charter. When John proposed to lead a new army to 
France, his vassals refused to go, on the ground that they were 
not pledged to fight for him outside of England. Finally, a number 



England and France in the Middle Ages 235 

of the barons banded together to force the king to sign a docu- 
ment stating plainly those things which according to old English 
custom a king might not legally do. The insurgent nobles met the 
king at Runny mede, not far from London. Here on the 15th of 
June, 12 1 5, they forced him to swear to observe what they be- 
lieved to be the rights of his subjects, which they had carefully 
written out. 

378. Provisions of the Charter. The Great Charter is perhaps 
the most famous document in the history of government. The 
king promises to observe the rights of his vassals, and the vassals 
in turn agree to observe the rights of their vassals. The towns 
are not to be oppressed. The merchant is not to be deprived of 
his goods for small offenses, nor the farmer of his wagon and im- 
plements. The king is to impose no tax, besides the three feudal 
aids, 1 except with the consent of the Great Council of the nation. 
This was to include the prelates and greater barons and all the 
king's vassals. 

There is no more notable clause in the Charter than that which 
provides that no freeman is to be arrested, or imprisoned, or 
deprived of his property, unless he be immediately sent before 
a court of his peers for trial. To realize the importance of this 
we must recollect that in France, down to 1789, — nearly six 
hundred years later, — the king exercised such unlimited powers 
that he could order the arrest of anyone he pleased and could 
imprison him for any length of time without bringing him to 
trial or even informing him of the nature of his offense. 

379. Permanent Importance of the Great Charter. It must 
be remembered, however, that the barons, who forced the Charter 
on the king, had their own interests especially in mind. The 
nobles, churchmen, merchants, and other freemen made up only 
about a sixth of the population, and the Charter had little or noth- 
ing to say of serfs or villains (§ 405), who formed the great mass 
of the English people at that time. They could still be victimized 

1 These three regular feudal dues were payments made when the lord knighted his 
eldest son, gave his eldest daughter in marriage, or had been captured and was waiting 
to be ransomed. 



236 



General History of Europe 



as before by their masters, the lords of the manor. But in later 
centuries, when the serfs had become free, the Charter could be 
appealed to in support of the people in general against attempts of 
the ruler to oppress them. There were times when the English 
kings evaded its provisions and tried to rule as absolute monarchs. 
But the people always sooner or later bethought them of the 
Charter, which thus continued to form a barrier against perma- 
nent despotism in England. 

QUESTIONS 

I. Review briefly the settlement of England before the Norman Con- 
quest (§§ 321, 322, 365). Describe the development of Normandy. 
What policy did William adopt in governing England? What are 
some of the results of the Norman Conquest? 

II. What improvements in the administration of the law were 
introduced by Henry II? How did the English rulers come to have 
possessions in France? What was the extent of their territory during 
the time of Henry II ? How was this territory regained by France ? 
Review the struggle of King John with the Pope. What were the 
circumstances leading to the signing of the Great Charter ? State some 
of its important provisions. 

Note. Edward I built Conway Castle in 1284 to keep the Welsh in check. Its walls 
are from twelve to fifteen feet thick. 




CHAPTER XIX 

THE CRUSADES : HERESY AND THE MENDICANT ORDERS 

I. The First Crusade 

380. Fascination of the Crusades. Of all the events of the 
Middle Ages the most romantic are the Crusades, the adventurous 
expeditions to Palestine, undertaken with the hope of reclaiming 
the Holy Land from the infidel Turks. All through the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries each generation beheld at least one great 
army of crusaders gathering from every part of the West and 
starting toward the Orient. Each year witnessed the departure of 
small bands of pilgrims or of solitary soldiers of the cross. 

For two hundred years there was a continuous stream of Euro- 
peans of every rank and station, — kings and princes, powerful 
nobles, simple knights, common soldiers, monks, townspeople, 
and even peasants, — from England, France, Germany, Spain, 
and Italy, making their way into Western Asia. 

381. The Holy Land conquered first by the Arabs and then 
by the Turks. Syria had been overrun by the Arabs shortly after 
the death of Mohammed, and the Holy City of Jerusalem had 
fallen into the hands of the infidels. The Arab, however, shared 
with the Christian the veneration for the places associated with 
the life of Christ and, in general, permitted the Christian pilgrims 
to worship unmolested. But with the coming of a new and ruder 
people, the Seljuk Turks, in the eleventh century, the pilgrims 
began to bring home news of great hardships. Moreover, the 
Eastern emperor was defeated by the Turks in 107 1 and lost 
Asia Minor. Finding himself unequal to the task of repelling 
the Turks, the Eastern emperor Alexius appealed to the Pope, 
Urban II, for aid. 

237 



238 General History of Europe 

382. Urban II issues a Call to the First Crusade (1095). The 
Pope responded, and at a Church council held at Clermont in 
France (1095) he summoned princes, knights, and soldiers of 
all ranks to give up their usual wicked business of fighting their 
Christian brethren in the constant neighborhood warfare (§ 342) 
and to turn instead to the aid of their fellow Christians in the 
East. He warned them that the cruel Turks would, if unchecked, 
extend their sway still more widely over the faithful servants 
of the Lord. 

The proposed campaign appealed to many different kinds of 
men. The devout, the romantic, and the adventurous were by no 
means the only classes that were attracted. Syria held out induce- 
ments to the discontented noble who might hope to gain a prin- 
cipality in the East, to the merchant who was looking for new 
enterprises, to the merely restless who wished to avoid his respon- 
sibilities at home, and even to the criminal who enlisted with a 
view of escaping the punishment for his past offenses. The faith- 
ful crusader, like the faithful Mohammedan, was assured of imme- 
diate entrance to heaven if he died repentant for his sins. 

383. Peter the Hermit and his Crusading Army. A few 
months after Urban issued his summons a motley army of peas- 
ants, workingmen, vagabonds, and even women and children 
had been collected under the leadership of Peter the Hermit and 
Walter the Penniless. These simple folk were confident that the 
Lord would protect them during their two-thousand-mile journey 
to the Holy Land and grant them a prompt victory over the in- 
fidel. But, as might have been expected, a great part fell by the 
way, and the rest were slaughtered or scattered by the Turks 
when the disorderly horde reached Asia Minor. 

384. The First Crusade (1096). The most conspicuous figures 
of the long period of the Crusades are not, however, to be found 
among the lowly followers of Peter the Hermit, but are the 
knights, in their long coats of flexible armor. A year after the 
summons issued at Clermont great armies of fighting men had 
been collected in the West under distinguished leaders — the Pope 
speaks of three hundred thousand soldiers. Among the crusading 



The Crusades: Heresy and the Mendicant Orders 239 



knights who played a most important role were Count Ray- 
mond of Toulouse, Godfrey of Bouillon, and his brother Baldwin. 
The Eastern emperor had hoped to use his Western allies to 
reconquer Asia Minor and force back the Turks. The leading 
knights, on the con- 
trary, dreamed of 
carving out princi- 
palities for them- 
selves in the former 
dominions of the em- 
peror and proposed to 
control them by right 
of conquest. Bald- 
win got possession of 
Edessa, of which he 
made himself prince. 
The march on Jerusa- 
lem was postponed, 
and a year was spent 
in capturing the rich 
and important city of 
Antioch. Then Ray- 
mond of Toulouse set 
to work and con- 
quered a principality 
for himself on the 
coast about Tripoli. 
385. Conquest of 
Jerusalem. In the 

spring of 1099 about twenty thousand warriors were at last able 
to move upon Jerusalem. They found the city well walled, in the 
midst of a desolate region where neither food nor water nor the 
materials to construct the siege apparatus necessary for the capture 
of the Holy City were to be found. In spite of all the difficulties 
the place was taken in a couple of months. The crusaders showed 
no mercy to the people of the city, but with shocking barbarity 




Kingdom of Jerusalem \\\\^ 
County of Tripoli 



Principality of Antioch 
County of Edessa l%% 



CALIPHATE 



Map of the Crusaders' States in Syria 



240 General History of Europe 

cruelly massacred the inhabitants. Godfrey of Bouillon was 
chosen ruler of Jerusalem. He soon died and was succeeded by 
his brother Baldwin. 

386. Founding of Latin Kingdoms in Syria. It will be ob- 
served that the "Franks," as the Mohammedans called all the 
Western folk, had established the centers of four principalities. 
These were Edessa, Antioch, the region about Tripoli conquered 
by Raymond, and the kingdom of Jerusalem. The news of these 
Christian victories quickly reached the West, and in iioi tens 
of thousands of new crusaders started eastward. Most of them 
were lost in passing through Asia Minor, and few reached their 
destination. The original conquerors were consequently left to 
hold the land against the Mohammedans and to organize their 
conquests as best they could. This was a very difficult task — 
too difficult to accomplish under the circumstances, since the 
greater part of those who visited Palestine returned home after 
fulfilling the vow they had made to kneel at the Holy Sepulcher. 

387. Military Religious Orders. A noteworthy outcome of 
the crusading movement was the foundation of several curious 
orders, of which the Hospitalers and the Templars (so called from 
the quarters assigned them in the king's palace at Jerusalem, on the 
site of the former temple of Solomon) were the most important. 
These orders combined the two great interests of the time, those of 
the monk and of the soldier. They permitted a man to be both at 
once ; the knight might wear a monkish cowl over his coat of armor. 

The Hospitalers was a charitable association which cared for 
the poor and the sick. The Templars became rich and powerful, 
for they were able to collect vast funds and the popes showered 
privileges on them. No wonder they grew insolent and aroused 
the jealousy and hate of princes and prelates alike. Early in the 
fourteenth century, through the combined efforts of the Pope and 
the king of France, the order was brought to a terrible end. Its 
members were accused of the most abominable practices, — such 
as the worship of idols and the systematic insulting of Christ and 
his religion. Many distinguished Templars were burned for 
heresy ; others perished miserably in dungeons. 



The Crusades: Heresy and the Mendicant Orders 241 




II. The Second and Later Crusades ; Results 

388. The Second Crusade. Fifty years after the preaching of 
the First Crusade the fall of Edessa (1144), an important out- 
post of the Christians in the East, led to a second expedition. 
This was forwarded by the great theologian St. Bernard, who 
went about using his 
unrivaled eloquence to 
induce volunteers to join 
the Crusade. The king 
of France readily con- 
sented to take the cross, 
but the emperor, Con- 
rad III, appears to have 
yielded only after St. 
Bernard had preached 
before him and given a 
vivid picture of the ter- 
rors to be revealed on 
the Judgment Day. 

St. Bernard himself, 
the chief promoter of the expedition, gives a most unflattering 
description of the "soldiers of Christ." "In that countless multi- 
tude you will find few except the utterly wicked and impious, the 
sacrilegious, homicides, and perjurers, whose departure is a double 
gain. Europe rejoices to lose them and Palestine to gain them ; 
they are useful in both ways, in their absence from here and their 
presence there." It is unnecessary to describe the movements and 
fate of these crusaders; suffice it to say that, from a military 
standpoint, the so-called Second Crusade was a miserable failure. 

389. The Third Crusade. In the year 1187, forty years later, 
Jerusalem was recaptured by Saladin, the most heroic and dis- 
tinguished of all the Mohammedan rulers of that period. The loss 
of the Holy City led to the most famous of all the military expedi- 
tions to the Holy Land, in which Emperor Frederick Barbarossa 
(§ 356), Richard the Lion-Hearted of England (§ 374), and his 



Tomb of a Crusader 

The churches of England, France, and Ger- 
many contain numerous figures in stone and 
brass of crusading knights, reposing in full 
armor with shield and sword on their tombs 



242 General History of Europe 

political rival, Philip Augustus of France, all took part. The ac- 
counts of this Third Crusade show that while the several Christian 
leaders hated one another heartily enough, the Christians and 
Mohammedans — or Saracens, as they were often called — were 
coming to respect one another. We find examples of the most 
polite relations between the representatives of the opposing reli- 
gions. In 1 192 Richard concluded a truce with Saladin, by 
the terms of which the Christian pilgrims were allowed to visit 
the holy places in safety and comfort. 

390. The Fourth and Subsequent Crusades. In the thirteenth 
century the crusaders began to direct their expeditions toward 
Egypt as a center of the Mohammedan power. The first of these 
was diverted in an extraordinary manner by the Venetian mer- 
chants, who induced the crusaders to conquer Constantinople for 
their benefit. The further expeditions, in which Jerusalem was 
recaptured for a short time, need not be described, for it was 
irrevocably lost in 1244. Although the possibility of recovering 
the Holy City was long considered, the Crusades may be said to 
have come to an end before the close of the thirteenth century. 

391. Settlements of the Italian Merchants. For one class, at 
least, the Holy Land had great and permanent charms ; namely, 
the Italian merchants, especially those from Genoa, Venice, and 
Pisa. It was through their early interest and by means of sup- 
plies from their ships that the conquest of the Holy Land had 
been rendered possible. The merchants always made sure that 
they were well paid for their services. When they aided in the 
successful siege of a town they arranged that a definite quarter 
should be assigned to them in the captured place, where they 
might settle and have their church, market, docks, and all that 
was necessary for a permanent center for their commerce. 

392. Oriental Luxury introduced into Europe. This new 
commerce had a most important influence in bringing the West 
into permanent relations with the Orient. Eastern products from 
India and elsewhere — silks, spices, camphor, musk, pearls, and 
ivory — were brought by the Mohammedans from the East to the 
commercial towns of Palestine and Syria ; then, through the 



The Crusades: Heresy and the Mendicant Orders 243 

Italian merchants, they found their way into France and Ger- 
many, suggesting ideas of luxury hitherto scarcely dreamed of 
by the still half-barbarous Franks. 

393. Effects of the Crusades on Warfare. Moreover, the 
Crusades had a great effect upon the methods of warfare, for the 
soldiers from the West learned from the Greeks about the old 
Roman methods of constructing machines for attacking castles 
and walled towns. This led to the construction in western Europe 
of stone castles, first with square towers and later with round ones, 
the remains of which are so common in Germany, France, and 
England. The Crusades also produced heraldry, or the rules for 
the use of "coats of arms." These were the badges that single 
knights or groups of knights adopted in order to distinguish 
themselves from other people. • 

394. Other Results of the Crusades. Some of the results of 
the Crusades upon western Europe must already be obvious, even 
from this very brief account. Thousands and thousands of French- 
men, Germans, and Englishmen had traveled to the Orient by 
land and by sea. Most of them came from hamlets or castles 
where they could never have learned much of the great world 
beyond the confines of their native village or province. They sud- 
denly found themselves in great cities and in the midst of un- 
familiar peoples and customs. This could not fail to make them 
think and give them new ideas to carry home. The Crusade took 
the place of a liberal education. The crusaders came in contact 
with those who knew more than they did, — above all, the Arabs, 1 — 
and brought back with them new notions of comfort and luxury. 

III. The Heretics and the Friars 

395. Rise of Heresy. During the period of the Crusades the 
Church faced a new danger at home. Leaders began to arise who 
attacked its institutions and beliefs and strove to induce men to 
join them in their revolt. Those who questioned the teachings of 

1 The western Europeans derived many important ideas from the Mohammedans in 
Spain, as Arabic numerals, alchemy, algebra, and the use of paper. 



244 General History of Europe 

the Church and cast off its authority were regarded as guilty of 
heresy, which was the supreme crime in the Middle Ages. 

It is very difficult for us who live in a time of religious tolera- 
tion to understand the universal and deep-rooted horror of heresy 
which long prevailed in Europe. But we must recollect that to the 
orthodox believer in the Church nothing could exceed the guilt of 
one who committed treason against God by rejecting the religion 
which had been handed down in the Roman Church from the im- 
mediate followers of his Son. Moreover, doubt and unbelief were 
not merely sin ; they were revolt against the most powerful social 
institution of the time, which continued to be venerated by people 
at large throughout western Europe. 

396. The Waldensians. Among those who continued to accept 
the Christian faith but refused to obey the clergy the most im- 
portant sect was that of the Waldensians, which took its rise 
about 1 1 75. These were followers of Peter Waldo of Lyons, who 
gave up all their property and lived a life of apostolic poverty. 
They went about preaching the gospel and explaining the Scrip- 
tures, which they translated from Latin into the language of the 
people. 

397. The Albigensians. On the other hand, there were popular 
leaders who taught that the Christian religion itself was false. 
They held that there were two principles in the universe, the 
good and the evil, which were forever fighting for the victory. 
They asserted that the Jehovah of the Old Testament was really 
the evil power, and that it was, therefore, the evil power whom 
the Catholic Church worshiped. These heretics were often called 
Albigensians, a name derived from the town of Albi in southern 
France, where they were very numerous. 

398. The Albigensian Crusade (1208). In southern France 
there were many adherents of both the Albigensians and the 
Waldensians, especially in the county of Toulouse. Against the 
people of this flourishing land Pope Innocent III preached a cru- 
sade in 1208. An army marched from northern France into the 
doomed region and, after a bloody war, suppressed the heresy by 
wholesale slaughter. At the same time the war checked the 



The Crusades: Heresy and the Mendicant Orders 245 

development of a promising civilization and destroyed the peaceful 
prosperity of the most enlightened portion of France (see below, 

§438). 

399. The Inquisition. The most permanent defense of the 
Church against heresy was the establishment, under the headship 
of the Pope, of a system of courts designed to ferret out secret 
cases of unbelief and bring the offenders to punishment. These 
courts, which devoted their whole attention to the discovery and 
conviction of heretics, were called the Holy Inquisition, which 
gradually took form after the Albigensian crusade. Those sus- 
pected of heresy were often subjected to long imprisonment or 
torture, inflicted with the hope of forcing them to confess their 
crime or to implicate others. 

Without by any means attempting to defend the methods em- 
ployed, it may be remarked that the inquisitors were often earnest 
and upright men, and the methods of procedure of the Inquisition 
were not more cruel than those used in the other courts of 

the period. 

If the suspected person confessed his guilt and abjured his 
heresy he was forgiven and received back into the Church ; but 
a penance was imposed upon him— sometimes even imprisonment 
for life— as a means of wiping away the unspeakable sin of which 
he had been guilty. If he persisted in his heresy he was "relaxed 
to the secular arm"; that is to say, the Church, whose law for- 
bade it to shed blood, handed over the convicted person to the civil 
power, which burned him alive without further trial. 

400. Founding of the Mendicant Orders. We may now turn 
to that far more cheerful and effective method of meeting the 
opponents of the Church which may be said to have been dis- 
covered by St. Francis of Assisi. His teachings and the example 
of his beautiful life probably did far more to secure continued al- 
legiance to the Church than all the harsh devices of the Inquisi- 
tion. St. Francis and St. Dominic strove to meet the needs of 
their time by inventing a new kind of clergyman, the begging 
brother, or "mendicant friar" (from the Latin f rater, "brother"). 
He was to do just what the bishops and parish priests often 



246 General History of Europe 

failed to do ; namely, lead a holy life of self-sacrifice, defend the 
Church's beliefs against the attacks of the heretics, and awaken the 
people to a new religious life. The founding of the mendicant 
orders is one of the most interesting events of the Middle Ages. 

401. St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) and his Order. There 
is no more lovely and fascinating figure in all history than 
St. Francis. He was born (probably in 11 82) at Assisi, a little 
town in central Italy. He was the son of a well-to-do merchant 
and led a gay life during his youth. But after a serious illness at 
the age of twenty he lost his love for his former pleasures and 
began to consort with beggars, especially lepers. He soon began to 
preach in his simple way. Others joined him, and they went bare- 
foot and penniless about central Italy trying to arouse interest 
in religion. 

Pope Innocent III, although at first suspicious of these ragged 
brethren, decided to approve the enterprise (12 10). 

402. Missionary Work of the Franciscans. Seven years later, 
when Francis's followers had greatly increased in numbers, mis- 
sionary work was begun on a large scale, and brethren were dis- 
patched to Germany, Hungary, France, Spain, and even to Syria. 
It was not long before an English chronicler was telling with 
wonder of the arrival in his country of these barefoot men, in 
their patched gowns and with ropes about their waists, who, with 
Christian faith, took no thought for the morrow, believing that 
their Heavenly Father knew what things they had need of. 
Francis never wished his followers to become a rich order, but 
people were ready to found monasteries for them, and after their 
founder's death the order tended to degenerate as other monkish 
associations had done. 

403. The Founding of the Dominican Order. St. Dominic 
(b. 1 1 70), the Spanish founder of the other great mendicant 
order, was not a simple layman like Francis. He was a church- 
man and had had a long course in theology in a university. He 
was much afflicted by the prevalence of heresy and decided to 
devote his life to combating it. Dominic induced Innocent III 
to approve his undertaking and sent forth his followers as Francis 



The Crusades: Heresy and the Mendicant Orders 247 

had done. By 122 1 the Dominican order was thoroughly organ- 
ized and had sixty monasteries scattered over western Europe. 

The Dominicans were called the " Preaching Friars" and were 
carefully trained in theology in order the better to refute the 
arguments of the heretics. The Pope delegated to them especially 
the task of conducting the Inquisition. They early began to 
extend their influence over the universities, and the two most 
distinguished theologians and teachers of the thirteenth century, 
Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, were Dominicans. 

QUESTIONS 

I. How did the Holy Land happen to be in the possession of in- 
fidels? What circumstances led to the Crusades? What classes of 
persons responded to the call? Describe the character and fate of 
Peter the Hermit's army. Give an account of the First Crusade. What 
were the military results? What religious orders grew up during this 
expedition ? 

II. What was the outcome of the later Crusades? What was the 
effect of the Crusades on commerce ? on warfare ? on general thought ? 

III. What was "heresy "? What were the views of the Waldensians ? 
Give an account of the Albigensians and the crusade against them. 
Describe the Holy Inquisition. What were the mendicant orders ? How 
did they differ from the monks with whom we are acquainted? Con- 
trast the Franciscans and Dominicans. Give an account of St. Francis. 
Can you trace any effects of these orders on the thought of the Middle 
Ages ? 



BOOK V. CIVILIZATION OF THE 
MIDDLE AGES 

CHAPTER XX 

MEDIEVAL LIFE IN COUNTRY AND TOWN 

I. The Serfs and the Manor 

404. Unimportance of Town Life in the Early Middle Ages. 
There was little town life in western Europe before the twelfth 
century. The Roman towns were decreasing in population before 
the German inroads. The confusion which followed the invasions 
hastened their decline, and a great number of them disappeared 
altogether. Those which survived and such new towns as sprang 
up were of very little importance during the early Middle Ages. 
We may assume, therefore, that during the long period from 
Theodoric to the opening of the Crusades by far the greater part 
of the population of England, Germany, and northern and central 
France were living in the country, on the great estates belonging 
to the feudal lords, abbots, and bishops. 1 

405. The Vill, or Manor. Obviously the owner of the castle 
had to obtain supplies to support his family, and servants and 
armed men. He could not have done this had he not possessed 
extensive tracts of land. A great part of western Europe in the 
time of Charlemagne appears, as we have seen, to have been 
divided into great estates or plantations. 

These medieval estates were called vills, or manors, and closely 
resembled the Roman villas which had existed in former centuries. 
The peasants who tilled the soil were called villains, a word derived 

1 In Italy and southern France town life was doubtless more general. 

248 



Medieval Life in Country and Town 249 

from vilL A portion of the estate was reserved by the lord 
for his own use; the rest of the plowed land was divided among 
the peasants, usually in long strips, of which each peasant had 
several scattered about the manor. 

406 Condition of the Serfs. The peasants were generally 
serfs who did not own their fields, but could not, on the other 
hand, be deprived of them so long as they worked for the lord 
and paid him certain dues. They were bound to the land and 
went with it when it changed hands. The serfs were required to 
till those fields which the lord reserved for himself and to gather 
in his crops. They might not marry without their lord's permis- 
sion Their wives and daughters helped with the indoor work of 
the manor house. In the women's buildings the women serfs en- 
gaged in spinning, weaving, sewing, baking, and brewing, thus 
producing clothes, food, and drink for the whole community. 

We get our clearest ideas of the position of the serfs from the 
ancient descriptions of manors, which give an exact account of 
what each member of a particular community owed to the lord. 
For example, we find that the abbot of Peterborough held a manor 
upon which Hugh Miller and seventeen other serfs, mentioned by 
name were required to work for him three days in each week 
during the whole year, except one week at Christmas, one at 
Easter, and one at Whitsuntide. Each serf was to give the lord 
abbot one bushel of wheat and eighteen sheaves of oats, three 
hens, and one cock yearly, and five eggs at. Easter. If he sold his 
horse for more than ten shillings, he was to give the said abbot 

fourpence. 

407. Slight Use of Money. One of the most remarkable 

characteristics of the manor was its independence of the rest of 

the world. It produced nearly everything that its members 

needed and might almost have continued to exist indefinitely 

without communication with those who lived beyond its bounds. 

Little or no money was necessary, for the peasants paid what was 

due to the lord in the form of labor and farm products. They 

also gave one another the necessary help and found little occasion 

for buying and selling. 



250 General History of Europe 

There was almost no opportunity to better their condition, and 
life must have gone on for generation after generation in a weary 
routine. Their existence was not merely monotonous, it was 
wretched. The food was coarse and there was little variety, as 
the peasants did not even take pains to raise fresh vegetables. 
The houses usually had but one room, which was poorly lighted 
by a single little window and had no chimney. 

408. Barter replaced by Money Transactions; Decline of 
Serfdom. The increased use of money in the twelfth and thir- 
teenth centuries, which came with the awakening trade and 
industry, tended to break up the manor. The habit of trading 
one thing for another without the employment of money began to 
disappear. As time went on, neither the lord nor the serf was 
satisfied with the old system, which had answered well enough 
in the time of Charlemagne. The serfs, on the one hand, began 
to obtain money by the sale of their products in the markets of 
neighboring towns. They soon found it more profitable to pay 
the lord a certain sum instead of working for him, for they could 
then turn their whole attention to their own farms. 

The landlords, on the other hand, found it to their advantage 
to accept money in place of the services of their tenants. With 
this money the landlord could hire laborers to cultivate his fields 
and could buy the luxuries which were brought to his notice as 
commerce increased. So it came about that the lords gradually 
gave up their control over the peasants. A serf might also gain 
his liberty by running away from his manor to a town. If he 
remained undiscovered, or was unclaimed by his lord for a year 
and a day, he became a freeman. 1 

1 The slow extinction of serfdom in western Europe appears to have begun as early 
as the twelfth century. A very general emancipation had taken place in France by the 
end of the thirteenth century (and in England somewhat later), though there were still 
some serfs in France when the Revolution came in 1789. Germany was far more back- 
ward in this respect. We find the peasants revolting against their hard lot in Luther's 
time, and it was not until the nineteenth century that the serfs were freed in Prussia. 



Medieval Life in Country and Town 
II. The Towns and Guilds 



251 



409. Importance of Town Life. It is hardly necessary to 
point out that the gradual reappearance of town life in western 
Europe is of the greatest interest to the student of history. 



The 







A Castle with a Village below it 

A village was pretty sure to grow up near the castle of a-powerful lord and 
might gradually become a large town 

cities had been the centers of Greek and Roman civilization, and 
in our own time they dominate the life, culture, and business enter- 
prise of the world. Were they to disappear, our whole life, even in 
the country, would necessarily undergo a profound change and tend 
to become primitive again like that of the age of Charlemagne. 
410. Origin of the Medieval Towns. A great part of the 
medieval towns appear to have originated on the manors of feudal 
lords or about a monastery or castle. The French name for towns, 



252 General History of Europe 

ville, is derived from "vill," the manor or villa, and we use 
this old Roman word when we call a town Jacksonville or Harris- 
ville. The need of protection was probably the usual reason for 
establishing a town with walls about it, so that the townspeople 
and the neighboring country people might find safety within it 
when attacked by neighboring feudal lords. 

411. Compactness of a Medieval Town. The way in which 
a medieval town was built seems to justify this conclusion. It 
was generally crowded and compact compared with its more 
luxurious Roman predecessors. Aside from the market place there 
were few or no open spaces. There were no amphitheaters or 
public baths as in the Roman cities. The streets were often mere 
alleys, over which the jutting stories of the high houses almost 
met. The high, thick wall that surrounded it prevented its 
extending easily and rapidly as our cities do nowadays. 

412. Townsmen originally Serfs. All towns outside of Italy 
were small in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and, like 
the manors on which they had grown up, they had little com- 
merce as yet with the outside world. They produced almost all 
that their inhabitants needed except the farm products which 
came from the neighboring country. There was likely to be little 
expansion as long as the town remained under the absolute control 
of the lord or monastery upon whose land it was situated. The 
townspeople were scarcely more than serfs, in spite of the fact 
that they lived within a wall and were traders and artisans in- 
stead of farmers. They had to pay irritating dues to their lord, 
just as if they still formed a farming community. 

With the increase of trade (§§414-418) came the longing for 
greater freedom. For when new and attractive commodities began 
to be brought from the East and the South, the people of the 
towns were encouraged to make things which they could exchange 
at some neighboring fair for the products of distant lands. But no 
sooner did the townsmen begin to engage in manufacturing and to 
enter into relations with the outside world than they became 
aware that they were subject to exactions and restrictions which 
rendered progress impossible. 




Street in Quimper, France 

None of the streets in even the oldest European towns look just as they did 
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but here and there, as in this town of 
Brittany, one can still get some idea of the narrow, cramped streets and over- 
hanging houses and the beautiful cathedral crowded in among them 



Medieval Life in Country and Town 253 

Consequently, during the twelfth century there were many in- 
surrections of the towns against their lords, and there was a gen- 
eral demand that the lords should grant the townsmen charters in 
which the rights of both parties should be definitely stated. These 
charters were written contracts between the lord and the town 

government. 

413. The Guilds. The tradesmen in the medieval towns were 
at once manufacturers and merchants ; that is, they made, as well 
as offered for sale, the articles which they kept in their shops. 
Those who belonged to a particular trade— the bakers, the butch- 
ers, the sword-makers, the armorers, etc.— formed unions or guilds 
to protect their special interests. The oldest statutes of a guild 
in Paris are those of the candle-makers, which go back to 1061. 
The number of trades differed greatly in different towns, but the 
guilds all had the same object— to prevent anyone from prac- 
ticing a trade who had not been duly admitted to the union. 

A young man had to spend several years in learning his trade. 
During this time he lived in the house of a " master workman" as 
an "apprentice," but received no remuneration. He then became 
a "journeyman" and could earn wages, although he was still 
allowed to work only for master workmen and not directly for 
the public. A simple trade might be learned in three years, but 
to become a goldsmith one must be an apprentice for ten years. 
The number of apprentices that a master workman might employ 
was strictly limited, in order that the journeymen might not 
become too numerous. 

The way in which each trade was to be practiced was carefully 
regulated, as well as the time that should be spent in work each, 
day. The system of guilds discouraged enterprise but maintained 
uniform standards everywhere. Had it not been for these unions 
the defenseless, isolated workmen, serfs as they had formerly 
been, would have found it impossible to secure freedom and 
municipal independence from the feudal lords who had formerly 
been their masters. 



254 General History of Europe 

III. Business in the Later Middle Ages 

414. Revival of Business. The chief reason for the growth 
of the towns and their increasing prosperity was a great develop- 
ment of trade throughout western Europe. Commerce had pretty 
much disappeared with the decline of the Roman roads and the 
general disorganization produced by the barbarian invasions. In 
the early Middle Ages there were no officials whose business it was 
to keep up the ancient Roman thoroughfares. The great network 
of highways from Persia to Britain fell apart when independent 
nobles or small isolated communities took the place of a world 
empire. All trade languished, for there was little demand for 
articles of luxury and there was but little money to buy what we 
should consider the comforts of life ; even the nobility lived uncom- 
fortably enough in their dreary and rudely furnished castles. 

415. Italian Cities trade with the Orient. In Italy, however, 
trade does not seem to have altogether ceased. Venice, Genoa, 
Amain, and other towns appear to have developed a considerable 
Mediterranean commerce even before the Crusades. The Italian 
cities established trading stations in the East and carried on a 
direct traffic with the caravans which brought to the shores of 
the Mediterranean the products of Arabia, Persia, India, and the 
Spice Islands. 

416. Commerce stimulates Industry. So long as the manor 
system prevailed and each man was occupied in producing only 
what he and the other people on the estate needed, there was 
nothing to send abroad and nothing to exchange for luxuries. But 
when merchants began to come with tempting articles, the mem- 
bers of a community were encouraged to produce a surplus of 
goods above what they themselves needed and to sell or exchange 
this surplus for commodities coming from a distance. Merchants 
and artisans gradually directed their energies toward the produc- 
tion of what others wished as well as what was needed by the 
little group to which they belonged. 

417. The Luxuries of the East introduced into Europe. 
The people of Europe were astonished and delighted by the 



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Medieval Life in Country and Town 255 

luxuries of the East — the rich fabrics, oriental carpets, precious 
stones, perfumes, drugs, silks, and porcelains from China, spices 
from India, and cotton from Egypt. Venice introduced the silk 
industry from the East and the manufacture of those glass articles 
which the traveler may still buy in the Venetian shops. The West 
learned how to make silk and velvet as well as light and gauzy 
cotton and linen fabrics. 

418. Important Commercial Centers. The Northern mer- 
chants dealt mainly with Venice and brought their wares across 
the Brenner Pass and down the Rhine, or sent them by sea to 
be exchanged in Flanders (see map). By the thirteenth century 
important centers of trade had come into being, some of which are 
still among the great commercial towns of the world. Hamburg, 
Liibeck, and Bremen carried on active trade with the countries on 
the Baltic and with England. Bruges and Ghent sent their manu- 
factures everywhere. English commerce, however, was relatively 
unimportant as yet. 

419. Obstacles to Business. For various reasons it was very 
hard to carry on business on a large scale in the Middle Ages. 
In the first place, as has been said, there was little money, and 
money greatly encourages buying and selling. 

Moreover, it was universally believed that everything had a "just" 
price, which was merely enough to cover trie cost of the materials 
used in its manufacture and to remunerate the maker for the 
work he had put into it. It was considered outrageous to ask 
more than the just price, no matter how anxious the purchaser 
might be to obtain the article. 

Every manufacturer was required to keep a shop in which he 
offered at retail all that he made. Those who lived near a town 
were permitted to sell their products in the market place within the 
walls on condition that they sold directly to the consumers. They 
might not dispose of their whole stock to one dealer, for fear that if 
he had all there was of a commodity he might raise the price above 
the just one. These ideas made all wholesale trade very difficult. 

420. Payment of Interest on Money Forbidden. Akin to 
these prejudices against wholesale business was that against taking 



256 General History of Europe 

interest. Money was believed to be a dead and sterile thing, and 
no one had a right to demand any return for lending it. Interest 
was considered wicked, since it was exacted by those who took 
advantage of the embarrassments of others. "Usury," as the 
taking of even the most moderate and reasonable rate of interest 
was then called, was strenuously forbidden by the laws of the 
Church. So money-lending, which is necessary to all great com- 
mercial and industrial undertakings, was left to the Jews, who 
were not required to obey the rules established by the Christian 
Church for its own members. 

421. The Jews as Money-Lenders. This ill-starred people 
played a most important part in the economic development of 
Europe, but they were terribly maltreated by the Christians, who 
held them guilty of the supreme crime of putting Christ to death. 
The active persecution of the Jews did not, however, become com- 
mon before the thirteenth century, when they first began to be 
required to wear a peculiar cap, or badge, which made them easily 
recognized and exposed them to constant insult. Later they were 
sometimes required to live in a certain quarter of the city, called 
the Jewry or Ghetto. As they were excluded from the guilds, they 
not unnaturally turned to the business of money-lending, which no 
Christian might practice. Undoubtedly this occupation had much 
to do with causing their unpopularity. The kings permitted them 
to make loans, often at a most exorbitant rate ; Philip Augustus 
allowed them to exact 46 per cent, but reserved the right to extort 
their gains from them when the royal treasury was empty. In 
England the usual rate was a penny a pound for each week. 

422. Tolls and Other Annoyances. Another serious disadvan- 
tage which the medieval merchant had to face was the payment of 
an infinite number of tolls and duties which were demanded 
by the lords through whose domains his road passed. Not only 
were duties exacted on the highways, bridges, and at the fords, 
but those barons who were so fortunate as to have castles on a 
navigable river blocked the stream in such a way that the mer- 
chant could not bring his vessel through without a payment for 
the privilege. 



Medieval Life in Country and Town 257 

423. Pirates. Commerce by sea had its own particular trials, 
by no means confined to the hazards of wind and wave, rock and 
shoal, for pirates were numerous in the North Sea. They were 
often organized and sometimes led by men of high rank, who 
appear to have regarded the business as no disgrace. The coasts 
were dangerous and lighthouses and beacons were few. 

424. The Hanseatic League. With a view of reducing these 
manifold perils, the towns early began to form unions for mutual 
defense. The most famous of these was that of the German cities, 
called the Hanseatic League (from hansa, meaning " confederation " 
or "union"). Liibeck was always the leader, but among the 
seventy towns which at one time and another were included in the 
confederation we find Cologne, Brunswick, Danzig, and other 
centers of great importance. The union purchased and controlled 
settlements in London, — the so-called Steelyard near London 
Bridge, — at Wisby, Bergen, and far-off Novgorod in Russia. 
They managed to monopolize nearly the whole trade on the Baltic 
and North Seas, either through treaties or the influence that they 
were able to bring to bear (see map, p. 254). 

The League made war on the pirates and did much to reduce 
the dangers of traffic. Instead of dispatching separate and de- 
fenseless merchantmen, their ships sailed out in fleets under the 
protection of a man-of-war. 

425. Trade carried on by Towns, not by Nations. It should 
be observed that during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth 
centuries trade was not carried on between nations but by the 
various towns, like Venice, Liibeck, Ghent, Bruges, Cologne. A 
merchant did not act or trade as an independent individual but 
as a member of a particular merchant guild, and he enjoyed the 
protection of his town and of the treaties it arranged. 

426. Increasing Importance of Business Men. The increasing 
wealth of the merchants could not fail to raise them to a position 
of importance which earlier tradesmen had not enjoyed. They 
began to build fine houses and to buy the various comforts and 
luxuries which were finding their way into western Europe. They 
wanted their sons to be educated, and so it came about that other 



258 General History of Europe 

people besides clergymen began to learn how to read and write. 
As early as the fourteenth century many of the books appear 
to have been written with a view of meeting the tastes and needs 
of the business class. 

Representatives of the towns were summoned to the councils 
of the kings — into the English Parliament and the French Estates 
General about the year 1300, for the monarch was obliged to 
ask their advice when he needed their money to carry on his 
government and his wars. The rise of the business class alongside 
the older orders of the clergy and nobility is one of the most 
momentous changes of the thirteenth century. 

IV. Gothic Architecture 

427. Medieval Buildings. Almost all the medieval buildings 
have disappeared in the ancient towns of Europe. The stone 
town walls, no longer adequate in our times, have been removed, 
and their place has been taken by broad and handsome avenues. 
The old houses have been torn down in order to widen and 
straighten the streets and permit the construction of modern dwell- 
ings. Here and there one can still find a walled town, but they are 
few in number and are merely curiosities. 

Of the buildings erected in towns during the Middle Ages only 
the churches remain, but these fill the beholder with wonder and 
admiration. It seems impossible that the cities of the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries, which were neither very large nor very rich, 
could possibly find money enough to pay for them*. No modern 
buildings equal them in beauty and grandeur, and they are the 
most striking memorial of the religious spirit and the town pride 
of the Middle Ages. 

The construction of a cathedral sometimes extended over two 
or three centuries, and much of the money for it must have been 
gathered penny by penny. It should be remembered that every- 
body belonged in those days to the one great Catholic Church, so 
that the building of a new church was a matter of interest to the 
whole community — to men of every rank, from the bishop him- 
self to the workman and the peasant. 




Facade of the Cathedral at Rheims (Thirteenth Century) 




Rose Window of Rheims Cathedral, nearly Forty Feet in 
Diameter, from the Inside 



Medieval Life in Country and Town 



259 



428. The Romanesque Style. Up to the twelfth century 
churches were built in what is called the Romanesque, or Roman- 
like, style because they resembled the solid old buildings of the 
Romans. These Romanesque churches had stone ceilings and it 
was necessary to make the walls very thick and solid to support 
them. There was a main aisle in the center, called the nave, and 




Romanesque Church of Chatel-Montagne in the Department 

of Allier, France 

This is a pure Romanesque building with no alterations in a later style, 
such as are common. Heavy as the walls are, they are reenforced by 
buttresses along the side. All the arches are round, none of them pointed 

a narrower aisle on each side, separated from the nave by mas- 
sive stone pillars, which helped to hold up the heavy ceiling. 
These pillars were connected by round arches of stone above 
them. The tops of the smallish windows were round ; so the 
round arches form one of the striking features of the Romanesque 
style which distinguish it from the Gothic style that followed 
it. The windows had to be small in order that the walls should 
not be weakened. 



2 60 



General History of Europe 




Cross Section of Amiens 
Cathedral 

It will be noticed that there is a row 
of rather low windows opening under 
the roof of the aisle. These constitute 
the so-called triforium (E) . Above 
them is the clerestory (F) , the win- 
dows of which open between the flying 
buttresses. So it came about that the 
walls of a Gothic church were in fact 
mainly windows. The Egyptians were 
the first to invent the clerestory 



429. The Gothic Style. 
The architects of France in 
the twelfth century invented 
a new and wonderful method 
of constructing churches and 
other buildings which en- 
abled them to do away with 
the heavy walls and put high, 
wide, graceful windows in 
their place. This new style 
of architecture is known as 
the Gothic, 1 and its under- 
lying principles can readily 
be understood from a little 
study of the accompanying 
diagram, which shows how 
a Gothic cathedral is sup- 
ported not by heavy walls 
but by buttresses. 

The architects discovered 
in the first place that the 
concave stone ceiling, which 
is known as the vaulting 
(A), could be supported by 
ribs (B). These could in turn 
be brought together and sup- 
ported on top of pillars which 
rested on the floor of the 
church. So far so good ! But 
the builders knew well enough 

1 The inappropriate name v Gothic " 
was given to the beautiful churches of 
the North by Italian architects of the 
sixteenth century, who did not like 
them and preferred to build in the 



style of the ancient Romans. The 
Italians, with their "classical" tastes, assumed that only German barbarians — whom 
they carelessly and ignorantly called Goths — could admire a Gothic cathedral 



Medieval Life in Country and Town 261 

that the pillars and ribs would be pushed over by the weight and 
outward "thrust" of the stone vaulting if they were not firmly sup- 
ported from the outside. Instead of erecting heavy walls to insure 
this support they had recourse to buttresses (D), which they built 
quite outside the walls of ^g^ 

the church and con- 
nected by means of 
" flying " buttresses (CC) 
with the points where 
the pillars and ribs had 
the greatest tendency to 
push outward. In this 
way a vaulted stone ceil- 
ing could be supported 
without the use of a 
massive wall. This in- 
genious use of buttresses 
instead of walls is the 
fundamental principle of 
Gothic architecture. It 
was discovered for the 
first time by the archi- 
tects in the medieval 
towns and was ap- 
parently quite unknown 
to earlier builders. 

The wall, no longer essential for supporting the ceiling, was 

used only to inclose the building, and windows could be made as 

high and wide as pleased the architect. By the use of pointed 

instead of round arches it was possible to give great variety to 

the windows and vaulting. So pointed arches came into general 

use and the Gothic is often called the "pointed" style on this 

account, although the use of the ribs and buttresses, not the 

pointed arch, is the chief peculiarity of this form of architecture. 

430 Church Windows. The light from the huge windows 

(those at Beauvais are fifty to fifty-five feet high) would have 




Flying Buttresses of the Cathedral 
of Notre Dame, Paris 



262 



General History of Europe 




been too intense had it not been softened by the stained glass, set 
in exquisite stone tracery. The stained glass of the medieval 
cathedral, especially in France, where the glass workers brought 
their art to the greatest perfection, was one of its chief glories. 

431. Gothic Sculpture. As 
the skill of the architects in- 
creased they became bolder 
and bolder and erected 
churches that were marvels of 
lightness and delicacy of orna- 
ment, without sacrificing dig- 
nity or beauty of proportion. 
The fagade of Rheims cathe- 
dral (see cut facing page 258) 
was — before its mutilation by 
German shells during the 
World War — one of the most 
famous examples of the Gothic 
art of the thirteenth century, 
with its multitudes of sculp- 
tured figures and its gigantic 
rose window (see cut facing 
page 259), filled with ex- 
quisite stained glass of great 
brilliancy. 
One of the charms of a Gothic building is the profusion of 
carving — statues of saints and rulers and scenes from the Bible 
cut in stone. The same kind of stone was used for both construct- 
ing the building and making the statues, so they harmonize per- 
fectly. Here and there the Gothic stone carvers would introduce 
amusing faces or comical animals (see cut on following page). 

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Gothic buildings other 
than churches were built. The most striking and important of 
these were the guild halls, erected by the rich corporations of 
merchants, and the town halls of important cities. But the 
Gothic style has always seemed especially appropriate for churches. 



Figures on Notre Dame, Paris 

Such grotesque figures as these are 
very common adornments of Gothic 
buildings. They are often used for 
spouts to carry off the rain and are 
called gargoyles, that is, "throats" 
(compare our words "gargle" and 
"gurgle"). The two here represented 
are perched on a parapet of one of 
the church's towers 




Interior of Exeter Cathedral (Early Fourteenth Century) 




North Porch of Chartres Cathedral (Fourteenth Century) 



Medieval Life in Country and Town 



263 



QUESTIONS 

I. What led to the disappearance of town life before the twelfth 
century ? Where and how did the most of the people live ? Describe 
a medieval manor. What were the services that a serf owed his master ? 
How did the use of money hasten the decline of serfdom ? 

II. How did the medieval towns grow up? Compare the medieval 
town with Greek and Roman cities. What class of people originally 
settled in the towns ? What is the origin of the town charter ? De- 
scribe the medieval guilds. Have we any instances of this form of 
organization today? 

III. What led to the development of town life in the later Middle 
Ages ? Describe the revival and extending of commerce. What were 
the more important commercial centers? What were some of the 
obstacles to business ? What was the medieval attitude toward taking 
interest for money ? What new social class grew up as a result of the 
development of business ? 

IV. What are the chief characteristics of the Romanesque style? 
What discoveries made the Gothic style possible ? Describe the decora- 
tion of a Gothic cathedral. Can you find any examples of Romanesque 
or Gothic art in your neighborhood ? 

Note. Here and there about a Gothic cathedral the stone carvers were accustomed 
to place grotesque and comical figures and faces. During the process of restoring the 
cathedral at Rheims a number of these heads were brought together, and the photograph 
was taken upon which the illustration is based. 







CHAPTER XXI 

BOOKS AND SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 

I. How the Modern Languages Originated 

432. General Use of Latin in the Middle Ages. We should 
leave the Middle Ages with a very imperfect notion of them if we 
did not now stop to consider what people were thinking about 
during that period, what they had to read, and what they believed 
about the world in which they lived. 

To begin with, the Middle Ages differed from our own time 
in the very general use then made of Latin, both in writing and 
speaking. The language of the Roman Empire continued to be 
used in the thirteenth century, and long after. The professors in 
the universities lectured in Latin, and state papers, treaties, and 
legal documents were drawn up in the same language. The ability 
of every educated person to make use of Latin, as well as of his 
native tongue, was a great advantage at a time when there were 
many obstacles to intercourse among the various nations. It helps 
to explain, for example, the remarkable way in which the Pope 
kept in touch with all the clergymen of Western Christendom, 
and the ease with which students, friars, and merchants could 
wander from one country to another. There is no more inter- 
esting or important revolution than that by which the languages 
of the people in the various European countries gradually pushed 
aside the ancient tongue and took its place, so that even scholars 
scarcely ever think now of writing books in Latin. 

In order to understand how it came about that two languages, 
the Latin and the native speech, were both commonly used in all 
the countries of western Europe all through the Middle Ages, we 
must glance at the origin of the modern languages. These all fall 

into two quite distinct groups, the Germanic and the Romance. 

264 



Books and Science in the Middle Ages 265 

433. The Germanic Languages. Those German peoples who 
had continued to live outside of the Roman Empire naturally 
clung to the language they had always used ; namely, the 
particular Germanic dialect which their forefathers had spoken 
for untold generations. From the various languages used by the 
German barbarians modern English, Dutch, German, Swedish, 
Norwegian, and Danish are largely derived. 

434. The Romance Languages. The second group of lan- 
guages developed within the territory which had formed a part 
of the Roman Empire, and includes modern French, Italian, 
Spanish, and Portuguese. It has now been proved that these 
Romance languages were one and all derived from the spoken 
Latin, employed by the soldiers, merchants, and people at large. 
This differed considerably from the written Latin which was 
used, for example, by Cicero and Caesar. It was undoubtedly 
much simpler in its grammar and varied a good deal in different 
regions ; a Gaul, for instance, could not pronounce the words like 
a Roman. Moreover, in conversation people did not always use 
the same words as those employed in books. 

As time went on, the spoken language diverged farther and 
farther from the written. Yet several centuries elapsed after the 
German invasions before there was anything written in this 
conversational language. 

435. Ancient English, or Anglo-Saxon. The oldest form 
of English is called Anglo-Saxon and is so different from the lan- 
guage which we use that, in order to be read, it must be learned 
like a foreign language. This old form of our language prevailed 
until after the Norman Conquest ; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 
which does not close until 1 1 54, is written in Anglo-Saxon. 

Here is an example : " Here on thissum geare Willelm cyng geaf 
Rodberde eorle thone eorldom on Northymbraland. Da komon 
tha landes menn togeanes him & hine ofslogen, & ix hund manna 
mid him." In modern English this reads : "In this year King 
William gave the Earl Robert the earldom of Northumberland. 
Then came the men of the country against him and slew him, and 
nine hundred men with him," 



266 General History of Europe 

By the middle of the thirteenth century, two hundred years 
after the Norman Conquest, English begins to look somewhat 
familiar. Chaucer (about 1340-1400) was the first great English 
writer whose works are now read with pleasure, although one is 
sometimes puzzled by his spelling and by certain words which are 
no longer used. This is the way one of his tales opens : 

A poure wydow somdel stope in age, 
Was whilom dwellyng in a narwe cotage, 
Bisyde a grove, stondyng in a dale. 

436. French and Provencal. In the Middle Ages, however, 
French, not English, was the most important of the national 
languages of western Europe. In France a vast literature was 
produced in the language of the people during the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries which profoundly affected the books written 
in Italy, Spain, Germany, and England. 

Two quite different languages had gradually developed in 
France from the spoken Latin of the Roman Empire. To the 
north French was spoken ; to the south Provencal. v 

Very little in the ancient French language written before the 
year 11 00 has been preserved. The West Franks undoubtedly 
began much earlier to sing of their heroes, of the great deeds of 
Clovis and Charles the Hammer. These famous rulers were, how- 
ever, completely overshadowed by Charlemagne, who became 
the unrivaled hero of medieval poetry and romance (§326). 
It was believed that he had reigned for a hundred and twenty-five 
years, and the most marvelous exploits were attributed to him 
and his knights. He was supposed, for instance, to have led a 
crusade to Jerusalem. Such themes as these — more legend than 
history — were woven into long epics, which were the first written 
literature of the Frankish people. 

437. Romances of King Arthur and the Knights of the 
Round Table. The famous Song of Roland, the chief character 
of which was one of Charlemagne's captains, was written before 
the First Crusade. In the latter part of the twelfth century the 
romances of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table 



Books and Science in the Middle Ages 267 

begin to appear. These enjoyed great popularity in all western 
Europe for centuries, and they are by no means forgotten yet. 
Arthur, of whose historical existence no one can be quite sure, was 
supposed to have been king of Britain shortly after the Saxons 
gained a foothold in the island. 

Besides the long and elaborate epics, like Roland, and the 
romances in verse and prose, there were numberless short stories 
in verse, which usually dealt with the incidents of everyday life, 
especially with the comical ones. 

« 

II. The Troubadours and Chivalry 

438. The Troubadours. Turning now to southern France, the 
beautiful songs of the troubadours, which were the glory of the 
Provencal tongue, reveal a gay and polished society at the courts 
of the numerous feudal princes. The troubadours traveled from 
court to court, not only in France but north into Germany and 
south into Italy, carrying with them the southern French poetry 
and customs. We have few examples of Provencal before the 
year 1100, but from that time on, for two centuries, countless 
songs were written. 

439. Chivalry. For the student of history the chief interest of 
the long poems of northern France and the songs of the South 
lies in the insight that they give into the ideals of this feudal period. 
These are usually summed up in the term chivalry, or knighthood. 
The knights play the chief role in all the medieval romances ; and 
since many of the troubadours belonged to the knightly class, 
they naturally have much to say of it in their songs. 

Chivalry was not a formal institution established at any par- 
ticular moment. Like feudalism, with which it was closely con- 
nected, it had no founder, but appeared spontaneously throughout 
western Europe to meet the needs and desires of the period. 
When the youth of good family had been carefully trained to 
ride his horse, use his sword, and manage his hawk in the hunt, he 
was made a knight by a ceremony in which the Church took part, 
although the knighthood was actually conferred by an older knight. 



268 General History of Europe 

440. Ideals of Knighthood. The knight was a Christian sol- 
dier, and he and his fellows were supposed to form, in a way, a 
separate order, with high ideals of the conduct befitting their 
class. Knighthood was not, however, membership in an associa- 
tion with officers and a definite constitution. It was an ideal, 
half -imaginary society — a society to which even those who en- 
joyed the title of king or duke were proud to belong. One was 
not born a knight as he might be born a duke or count, and could 
become one only through the ceremony mentioned above. Al- 
though most knights belonged to the nobility, one might t be a 
noble and still not belong to the knightly order, and, on the other 
hand, one who was born of humble parents might be raised to 
knighthood on account of some valorous deed. 

The knight must, in the first place, be a Christian and must 
obey and defend the Church on all occasions. He must respect 
all forms of weakness and defend the helpless wherever he might 
find them. He must fight the infidel Mohammedans ceaselessly, 
pitilessly, and never give way before the enemy. He must be 
generous and give freely and ungrudgingly to the needy. He must 
be faithful to his lady and be ready to defend her and her honor 
at all costs. Everywhere he must be the champion of the right 
against injustice and oppression. 

441. The German Minnesingers. The Germans also made 
their contribution to the literature of chivalry. The German 
poets of the thirteenth century are called minnesingers. Like the 
troubadours, whom they greatly admired, they usually sang of 
love (German, Minne), hence their name. 

III. Medieval Learning 

442. Medieval Ignorance of History. People unfamiliar with 
Latin could learn little of the past, for there were no trans- 
lations of the great books of Greece and Rome — of Homer, 
Plato, Cicero, or Livy. All that they could know of ancient his- 
tory was derived from the fantastic romances referred to above, 
which sometimes had for their theme the quite preposterous deeds 



Books and Science in the Middle Ages 269 

ascribed to Alexander the Great, ;£neas, and Caesar. As for their 
own history, the epics relating to the earlier course of events in 
France and the rest of Europe were hopelessly confused. 

443. Medieval Popular Science. Of what we should call 
scientific books, there were practically none. It is true that there 
was a kind of encyclopedia in verse which gave a great deal of 
misinformation about things in general. Everyone continued to 
believe, as the Greeks and Romans had done, in strange animals 
like the unicorn, the dragon, and the phcenix, and in still stranger 
habits of real animals. The most improbable things were repeated 
from generation to generation without its occurring to anyone to 
inquire whether there was any truth in them. 

From the Roman and early Christian writers, the Middle Ages 
got the idea of strange races of men and manlike creatures of 
various kinds. We find the following in an encyclopedia of the 
thirteenth century: " Satyrs be somewhat like men, and have 
crooked noses, and horns in the forehead, and are like to goats in 
their feet. . . . There be wonderful creatures that have heads as 
hounds, and seem beasts rather than men ; and some be called 
Cyclops, and have that name because each of them hath but one 
eye, and that in the middle of the forehead ; and some be all head- 
less and noseless and their eyes be in the shoulders ; and some 
have plain faces without nostrils, and the lower lips of them 
stretch so that they veil therewith their faces when they be in 
the heat of the sun." 

Two old subjects of study were revived and received great 
attention in Europe from the thirteenth century onward until 
recent times. These were astrology and alchemy. 

444. Astrology. Astrology (§ 49) was based on the belief that 
the planets influence the make-up of men and consequently their 
fate. Following an idea of the Greek philosophers, especially 
Aristotle, it was believed that all things were compounded of 
-the four elements"— earth, air, fire, and water. Each person 
was a particular mixture of these four elements, and the position 
of the planets at the time of his birth was supposed to influence 
his mixture or "temperament"; that is to say, his character. 



270 General History of Europe 

By knowing a person's temperament one could judge what he 
ought to do in order to be successful in life, and what he should 
avoid. For example, if one were born under the influence of 
Venus he should be on his guard against violent love and should 
choose for a trade something connected with dress or adornment ; 
if he were born under Mars he might make armor or horseshoes 
or become a soldier. Many common words are really astrological 
terms, such as "ill-starred," "disastrous," "jovial," "saturnine," 
"mercurial" (derived from the names of the planets). Astrology 
was taught in the universities because it was supposed to be 
necessary for physicians to know how to choose times when the 
stars were favorable for particular kinds of medical treatment. 

445. Alchemy. The alchemists experimented in their labora- 
tories with the hope of finding some way of turning lead and 
copper into gold and silver. They also tried to discover a sov- 
ereign remedy or elixir, as they called it, which would prolong life. 
Even if they did not succeed in their chief aim, they learned a 
great deal incidentally, and finally our modern chemistry emerged 
from alchemy. Like astrology, alchemy goes back to ancient 
times, for the people of the thirteenth century got most of their 
ideas through the Mohammedans, who had in turn got theirs from 
the Greek books on the subjects. 

IV. Medieval Universities and Studies 

446. Origin of the Universities. All European countries now 
have excellent schools, colleges, and universities. These had their 
beginning in the later Middle Ages. With the incoming of the 
barbarian Germans and the break-up of the Roman Empire edu- 
cation largely disappeared, and for hundreds of years there was 
nothing in western Europe, outside of Italy and Spain, corre- 
sponding to our universities and colleges. 

But by the end of the twelfth century the teachers had be- 
come so numerous in Paris that they formed a union, or guild. 
This union of professors was called by the usual name for 
corporations in the Middle Ages, universitas ; hence our word 



Books and Science in the Middle Ages 271 

"university." The king and the Pope both favored the university 
and granted the teachers and students many of the privileges 
of the clergy, a class to which they were regarded as belonging 
because learning had for so many centuries been confined to 
the clergy. 

About the time that we find the beginnings of a university or 
guild of professors at Paris, another great institution of learning 
was growing up at Bologna. Here the chief attention was given 
not to theology, as at Paris, but to the study of the law, both 
Roman and church law (called the Canon Law, from the Greek 
word meaning "rule"). 

The University of Oxford was founded during the reign of 
Henry II, probably by English students and masters who had 
become discontented at Paris. The University of Cambridge, as 
well as numerous universities in France, Italy, and Spain, were 
founded in the thirteenth century. The German universities were 
established much later, most of them in the latter half of the 
fourteenth century and in the fifteenth. 

447. The Academic Degree. When, after some years of study, 
a student was examined by the professors, he was, if successful, 
admitted to the corporation of teachers and became a master him- 
self. What we call a degree today was originally, in the medieval 
universities, nothing more than the right to teach ; but in the thir- 
teenth century many who did not care to become professors in 
our sense of the word began to desire the honorable title of master 
or doctor (which is only the Latin word for "teacher"). 

448. Simple Methods of Instruction. There were no univer- 
sity buildings, and in Paris the lectures were given in the Latin 
Quarter. There were no laboratories, for there was no experi- 
mentation carried on in the universities. All that was required 
was a copy of the textbook. This the lecturer explained sentence 
by sentence, and the students listened and sometimes took notes. 

449. Veneration for Aristotle. The most striking peculiarity 
of the instruction in the medieval university was the reverence 
paid to Aristotle (§ 149). Most of the courses of lectures were 
devoted to the explanation of some one of his numerous treatises. 



272 General History of Europe 

The teachers of the thirteenth century were so fascinated by his 
logic and astonished at his learning, that the great theologians of 
the time, Albertus Magnus (d. 1280) and Thomas Aquinas 
(d. 1274), devoted much time to preparing elaborate commentaries 
upon all his works. He was called "The Philosopher"; and so 
fully were scholars convinced that it had pleased God to permit 
Aristotle to say the last word upon each and every branch of 
knowledge that they humbly accepted him, along with the Bible, 
as one of their unquestioned authorities. 

450. Scholasticism. The name "scholasticism" is commonly 
given to the beliefs and method of discussion of the medieval 
professors. To those who later outgrew the fondness for logic 
and the supreme respect for Aristotle, scholasticism, with its neg- 
lect of Greek and Roman literature, came to seem a dry and 
profitless form of education. The scholastic training in logic, if 
it did not increase the sum of human knowledge, accustomed the 
student to make careful distinctions and present his arguments in 
an orderly way. 

451. Course of Study. No attention was given in the medieval 
universities to the great subject of history, nor was Greek taught. 
Latin had to be learned in order to carry on the work at all, 
but little time was given to the noble literature of the Romans. 
The new modern languages were considered entirely unworthy 
of the educated. It must of course be remembered that none of 
the books which we consider the great classics in English, French, 
Italian, or Spanish had as yet been written. 

452. Petrarch tries to learn Greek. Although the medieval 
professors paid the greatest respect to the Greek philosopher 
Aristotle and made Latin translations of his works the basis of 
the college course, very few of them could read any Greek and 
none of them knew much about Homer or Plato or the Greek 
tragedians and historians. In the fourteenth century Petrarch 
(1304-13 74) set the example in Italy of carefully collecting all 
the writings of the Romans, which he greatly admired. He made 
an effort to learn Greek, for he found that Cicero and other 



Books and Science in the Middle Ages 273 

Roman writers were constantly referring with enthusiasm to the 
Greek books to which they owed so much. 

453. Chrysoloras begins to teach Greek in Florence (1396). 
Petrarch had not the patience or opportunity to master Greek, 
but twenty years after his death a learned Greek prelate from 
Constantinople, named Chrysoloras, came to Florence and found 
pupils eager to learn his language -so that they could read the 
Greek books. Soon Italian scholars were going to Constantinople 
to carry on their studies, just as the Romans in Cicero's time had 
gone to Athens. They brought back copies of all the ancient 
writers that they could find, and by 1430 Greek books were once 
more known in the West, after a thousand years of neglect. 

454. The Humanists. In this way western Europe caught up 
with ancient times; scholars could once more know all that the 
Greeks and Romans had known and could read in the original 
the works of Homer, Sophocles, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, De- 
mosthenes, and other philosophers, historians, orators, and trage- 
dians. Those who devoted their lives to a study of the literature 
of Greece and Rome were called Humanists. The name is de- 
rived from the Latin word humanitas, which means " culture." 
In time the colleges gave up the exclusive study of Aristotle and 
substituted a study of the Greek and Latin literature, and in this 
way what is known as our "classical" course of study originated. 

V. Beginnings of Modern Inventions 

455. Roger Bacon's Attack on Scholasticism. So long, how- 
ever, as intellectual men confined themselves to studying the old 
books of Greece and Rome they were not likely to advance be- 
yond what the Greeks and Romans had known. 

Even in the thirteenth century there were a few scholars who 
criticized the habit of relying upon Aristotle for all knowledge. 
The most distinguished faultfinder was Roger Bacon, an English 
Franciscan monk (d. about 1294), who declared that even if Aris- 
totle were very wise, he had only planted the tree of knowledge, 



274 General History of Europe 

and that this had "not as yet put forth all its branches nor 
produced all its fruits." "If we could continue to live for endless 
centuries we mortals could never hope to reach full and complete 
knowledge of all the things which are to be known." 

456. Bacon foresees Great Inventions. Bacon declared that 
if men would only study common things instead of reading the 
books of the ancients, science could outdo the wonders which 
magicians of his day claimed to perform. He said that in 
time men would be able to fly, would have carriages which needed 
no horses to draw them and ships which would move swiftly 
without oars, and that bridges could be built without piers to 
support them. 

All this and much more has come true, but inventors and 
modern scientists owe but little to the books of the Greeks and 
Romans, which the scholastic philosophers and the Humanists 
relied upon. Although the Greek philosophers devoted consider- 
able attention to natural science, they were not much inclined to 
make long and careful experiments or to invent anything like 
the microscope or telescope to help them. Aristotle thought that 
the sun and all the stars revolved about the earth and that the 
heavenly bodies were perfect and unchangeable. He believed that 
heavy bodies fell faster than light ones and that all earthly things 
were made of the four elements — earth, air, water, and fire. The 
Greeks and Romans knew nothing of the compass, or gunpowder, 
or the printing press, or the uses to which steam can be put. 
Indeed, they had scarcely anything that we should call a machine. 

457. Discoveries of the Thirteenth Century. The thirteenth 
century witnessed certain absolutely new achievements in the 
history of mankind. The compass began to be utilized in a way 
to encourage bolder and bolder ventures out upon the ocean. The 
lens was discovered, and before the end of the century spectacles 
are mentioned. The lens made possible the later telescope, 
microscope, spectroscope, and camera, upon which so much of our 
modern science depends. The Arabic numerals began to take the 
place of the awkward Roman system of using letters. One can- 
not well divide XL VIII by VIII, but he can easily divide 48 by 8. 



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Page from a Copy of the Bible made in the Thirteenth Century 
(The Exact Size of the Original) 



Books and Science in the Middle Ages 275 

Roger Bacon knew of the explosive nature of a compound of 
sulphur, saltpeter, and charcoal, and a generation after his death 
gunpowder began to be used a little for guns and artillery. By 
1350 powder works were in existence and French and English 
books refer now and then to its use. At least a hundred and fifty 
years elapsed, however, before gunpowder really began to supplant 
the old ways of fighting with bows and arrows and axes and lances. 
By the year 1500 it was becoming clear that the old stone castles 
were insufficient protection against cannon. Gunpowder has done 
away with armor, bows and arrows, spears and javelins, castles, 
and walled towns. It may be that sometime some such fearfully 
destructive compound may be discovered that the nations may 
decide to give up war altogether as too dangerous and terrible 
a thing to resort to under any circumstances. 

458. Excellent Work of Medieval Copyists. The invention 
of the compass, lens, and gunpowder have greatly changed the 
habits of mankind. To these may be added the printing press, 
which has so encouraged education that it is becoming rare to find 
anyone who cannot read. The Greeks and Romans and the people 
of the Middle Ages knew no other method of obtaining a new copy 
of a book than by writing it out laboriously by hand. The pro- 
fessional copyists were incredibly dexterous with their quills. 
They made letters as clear, small, and almost as regular as if they 
had been printed (see cut facing page 274). After the scribe had 
finished his work the volume was often turned over to the illumi- 
nator, who would put in bright illuminated initials and sometimes 
page borders, which were delightful in design and color. 

The written books were often both compact and beautiful, but 
they were never cheap or easily produced in great numbers. When 
Cosimo, the grandfather of Lorenzo the Magnificent, wished to 
form a library just before the invention of printing, he applied 
to a contractor, who engaged forty-five copyists. By working 
hard for nearly two years they were able to produce only two 
hundred volumes for the new library. 

459. Errors of Copyists. Moreover, it was impossible before 
the invention of printing to have two copies of the same work 



276 



General History oj Europe 



precisely alike. Even with the greatest care a scribe could not 
avoid making some mistakes, and a careless copyist was sure 
to make a great many. With the invention of printing it became 
possible to produce in a short time a great many copies 
of a book which were exactly alike. Consequently, if 



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Closing Lines of the Psalter of 1459. (Much Reduced) 

The closing lines (that is, the so-called colophon) of the second edition of 
the Psalter, which are here reproduced, are substantially the same as 
those of the first edition. They may be translated as follows: "The 
present volume of the Psalms, which is adorned with handsome capitals 
and is clearly divided by means of rubrics, was produced not by writing 
with a pen but by an ingenious invention of printed characters ; and 
was completed to the glory of God and the honor of St. James by John 
Fust, a citizen of Mayence, and Peter Schoifher of Gernsheim, in the year 
of our Lord 1459, on the 29th of August" 



sufficient care was taken to see that the types were properly set, 
the whole edition, not simply a single copy, might be relied upon 
as correct. 

460. Paper introduced into Western Europe. After the supply 
of papyrus — the paper of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans — 
was cut off from Europe by the conquest of Egypt by the Moham- 
medans the people of the Middle Ages used parchment, made from 
the skin of lambs and goats. This was so expensive that printing 
would have been of but little use, even if it had been thought of, 
until paper — invented by the Chinese — was introduced into 
Europe by the Mohammedans. Paper began to become common 




Page from a Book of Hours, Fifteenth Century 
(Original Size) 



Books and Science in the Middle Ages 



277 



in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and was already re- 
placing parchment before the invention of printing. 

461. The Earliest Printed Books. The earliest book of any 
considerable size to be printed was the Bible, which appears to 
have been completed at Mayence in the year 1456. A year later 
the famous Mayence Psalter 
was finished, the first dated 
book. There are, however, 
earlier examples of little books 
printed with engraved blocks 
and even with movable types. 
In the German towns, where 
the art spread rapidly, the 
printers adhered to the style 
of letters which the scribe had 
found it convenient to make 
with his quill — the so-called 
Gothic, or black letter. In 
Italy, however, where the first 
printing press was set up in 
1466, a type was soon adopted 
which resembled the letters 
used in ancient Roman in- 
scriptions. This was quite 
similar to the style of letter 
commonly used today. 

462. Rapid Spread of Print- 
ing. By the year 1500, after 




An Old-fashioned Printing 
Office 

Until the nineteenth century printing 
was carried on with very little machin- 
ery. The type Was inked by hand, 
then the paper laid on and the form 
slipped under, a wooden press oper- 
ated by hand by means of a lever 



printing had been used less than half a century, there appear to 
have been at least forty printing presses to be found in various 
towns of Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and England. 
These presses had, it is estimated, already printed eight millions 
of volumes. So there was no longer any danger of the old books' 
being lost again, and the encouragement to write and publish 
new books was greatly increased. From that date our sources for 
history become far more voluminous than those which exist for 



278 General History of Europe 

the previous history of the world ; we are much better informed 
in regard to events and conditions since 1500 than we ever can be 
respecting those of the earlier periods. 

QUESTIONS 

I. Why was Latin used by the educated class in the Middle Ages ? 
What is the origin of the Germanic languages ? of the Romance lan- 
guages ? How did the written .and spoken languages come to differ ? 
What is the origin of dialects ? Can you give any instances in the 
Romance languages ? When does English appear sufficiently modern 
for us to read it easily? 

II. Who were the troubadours ? What were some of the ideals of 
this period expressed in their songs ? Describe the medieval knight. 

III. Why did the people of the Middle Ages know little of the past ? 
Of what did their science consist ? What was the importance of astrol- 
ogy? Define alchemy. To what modern subject is it related? 

IV. What is the original meaning of the word "university." Give 
the names of some of the early universities. What is the origin of the 
academic, degrees ? What subjects were studied in the medieval uni- 
versities ? Why was Aristotle regarded with such veneration ? What 
is scholasticism? How was the study of Greek revived in Europe? 
Who were the Humanists ? 

V. Why did Roger Bacon criticize the study of Aristotle ? What did 
he propose should take its place? Mention some important discov- 
eries made in the thirteenth century with which you are familiar today. 
How were books made before the invention of printing? What are 
the disadvantages of a book written by hand? What is the earliest 
large printed book? What are the chief effects of the introduction 
of printing ? 



CHAPTER XXII 

ENGLAND AND FRANCE DURING THE HUNDRED 
YEARS' WAR 

I. Wales and Scotland 

463. Extent of the King of England's Realms before Ed- 
ward I (1272-1307). The English kings who preceded Edward I 
had ruled over only a portion of the island of Great Britain. To 
the west of their kingdom lay the mountainous district of Wales, 
inhabited by that remnant of the original Britons which the 
Angles and Saxons had been unable to conquer (§ 321). To the 
north of England was the kingdom of Scotland, which was quite 
independent, except for an occasional recognition by the Scotch 
kings of the English rulers as their feudal superiors. Edward I, 
however, succeeded in conquering Wales permanently and spent 
much time in attempting to add Scotland to his possessions. 

464. Edward I conquers Wales. For centuries a border 
warfare had been carried on between the English and the Welsh. 
When Edward I came to the throne he demanded that Llewellyn, 
Prince of Wales (as the head of the Welsh clans was called), 
should do him homage. Llewellyn, who was a man of ability and 
energy, refused the king's summons, and Edward marched into 
Wales. Two campaigns were necessary before the Welsh finally 
succumbed. Llewellyn was killed (1282), and with him expired 
the independence of the Welsh people. 

Edward introduced English laws and customs into Wales, but 
was so conciliatory in his policy that the rule of the English was 
accepted with no great opposition. He gave his son the title of 
" Prince of Wales," which the heir to the English throne still 

retains, 

2 79 



280 General History of Europe 

465. Scotland and Edward Fs Attempt to conquer it. The 

conquest of Scotland proved a far more difficult matter than that 
of Wales. When the Angles and Saxons conquered Britain some 
of them wandered north as far as the Firth of Forth and occupied 
the so-called "Lowlands" of Scotland. The mountainous region 
to the north, known as the "Highlands," continued to be held by 
wild tribes related to the Welsh and Irish and talking a language 
similar to theirs, namely, Gaelic. There was constant warfare 
between the older inhabitants themselves, and between them and 
the newcomers from Germany, but both Highlands and Lowlands 
were finally united under a line of Scotch kings, who moved their 
residence down to Edinburgh, which, with its fortress, became 
their chief town. 

It was natural that the language of the Scotch Lowlands should 
be English, but in the mountains the Highlanders to this day 
continue to talk the ancient Gaelic of their forefathers. 

When the old line of Scotch monarchs died out in 1290, Edward 
was invited to decide who should be the next ruler. He did so on 
condition that the new king should hold Scotland as a fief from 
the English king. But Edward's demands roused the anger of 
the Scotch, and they declared themselves independent. The 
English monarch regarded this as a rebellion, and he made various 
attempts to incorporate Scotland with England by force, in the 
same way that he had treated Wales. 

Scotland was able to maintain her independence largely through 
the skill of Robert Bruce, a national hero who united the people 
under his leadership. Edward I died, old and worn out, in 1307 
and left the task of dealing with the Scotch to his incompetent 
son, Edward II. The Scotch made Bruce their king and defeated 
Edward II in the great battle of Bannockburn (13 14), the most 
famous conflict in Scottish history. W T hile England was forced to 
recognize the independence of Scotland, intermittent war between 
the two countries continued for nearly three hundred years after 
the battle of Bannockburn. Finally, a Scotch king ascended the 
English throne as James I, in 1603, and a hundred years later the 
countries were at last united as they are today. 



England and France during the Hundred Years' War 281 

The little Scotch nation differs in habits and character from 
the English, and no Scotchman likes to be mistaken for an 
Englishman. The peculiarities of the language and the character- 
istic habits of the people north of the river Tweed, which is the 
boundary line, have been made familiar to readers of Walter Scott, 
Robert Burns, and Robert Louis Stevenson. 

II. Beginnings of the English Parliament 

466. Origin of the English Parliament. One of the most 
important things to be noted in the period of the Edwards (1272- 
1377) was the rise of the English Parliament, which was long 
after to become the model for similar assemblies in all parts of 
the civilized world. 

The Great Council of the Norman kings, like the older Wite- 
nagemot of Saxon times (§ 369), was a meeting of nobles, bishops, 
and abbots, which the king summoned from time to time to give 
him advice and aid and to sanction serious undertakings. During 
the reign of Edward I's father a famous Parliament was held 
where a most important new class of members — the com- 
mons — were present. These were destined to give it its future 
greatness because they represented the interests and wishes of the 
great mass of influential people. ' In addition to the nobles and 
prelates, two country gentlemen (knights) were summoned from 
each county and two citizens from each of the more flourishing 
towns to attend and take part in the discussions. 

Edward I definitely adopted this innovation. He doubtless 
called in the representatives of the towns because the townspeople 
were becoming rich and he wished to have an opportunity to ask 
them to make grants of money to meet the expenses of the govern-, 
ment. He also wished to obtain the approval of all the important 
classes when he determined upon important measures affecting 
the whole realm. Ever since the so-called "Model Parliament" 
of 1295 the commons, or representatives of the "freemen," have 
always been included along with the clergy and nobility when 
the national assembly of England has been summoned. 



282 General History of Europe 

467. Growth of the Powers of Parliament. The Parliament 
early took the stand that the king must agree to "redress of 
grievances" before it would grant him any money. This meant 
that the king had to promise to remedy any acts of himself or his 
officials of which Parliament complained before it would agree 
to let him raise the taxes. Instead of following the king about and 
meeting wherever he might happen to be, the Parliament from the 
time of Edward I began to hold its sessions in the city of West- 
minster, now a part of London, where it still continues to meet. 

Under Edward's successor, Edward II, Parliament solemnly 
declared (in 1322) that important matters relating to the king 
and his heirs, the state of the realm and of the people, should be 
considered and determined upon by the king "with the assent of 
the prelates, earls and barons, and the commonalty [that is, com- 
mons] of the realm." Five years later, Parliament showed its 
power by deposing the inefficient king, Edward II, and declaring 
his son, Edward III, the rightful ruler of England. 

The new king, who was carrying on an expensive war with 
France, needed much money and consequently summoned Par- 
liament every year, and, in order to encourage its members to 
grant him money, he gratified Parliament by asking its advice 
and listening to its petitions. He passed no new law without 
adding "by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual 
and temporal and of the commons." 

468. House of Lords and House of Commons. At this time 
the separation of the two houses of Parliament took place, and 
ever since the "lords spiritual and temporal" — that is, the bishops 
and higher nobles — have sat by themselves in the House of 
Lords ; and the members of the House of Commons, including the 
country gentlemen (knights) and the representatives elected by 
the more important towns, have met by themselves. Parliament 
thus made up is really a modern, not a medieval, institution, and 
we shall hear much of it later. 



England and France during the Hundred Years' War 2 83 

III. The Hundred Years' War 

469. Edward III claims the French Crown. There had been, 
as we have seen, a long struggle between the French and English 
kings in the times of the Plantagenets, which had resulted in the 
English kings' losing all their French territory except the duchy 
of Guienne (§375). This arrangement lasted for many years, 
but, in the time of Edward III, the old line of French kings died 
out and Edward declared himself the rightful ruler of France 
because his mother was a sister of the last king of the old line. 
This led to a long series of conflicts known as the Hundred 
Years' War. 

470. Battle of Cressy. The French set up a king of their own, 
and in 1346 Edward landed in Normandy with an English army, 
devastated the country, and marched up the Seine toward Paris. 
He met the troops of the French king at Cressy, where a cele- 
brated battle was fought, in which the English with their long 
bows and well-directed arrows put to rout the French knights. 
Ten years later the English made another incursion into France 
and again defeated the French cavalry. The French king (John II) 
was himself captured and carried off to London. 

471. Edward III finds it Impossible to conquer France. 
Edward III found it impossible, however, to conquer France, 
and Charles V, the successor of the French king John II, managed 
before Edward died in 1377 to get back almost all the lands that 
the English had occupied. 

For a generation after the death of Edward III the war with 
France was almost discontinued. France had suffered a great 
deal more than England. All the fighting had been done on her 
side of the Channel, and in the second place, the soldiers, who 
found themselves without occupation, wandered about in bands 
maltreating and plundering the people. 

472. The Bubonic Plague of 1348-1349 (the "Black 
Death"). The horrors of war had been increased by the deadly 
bubonic plague, which appeared in Europe early in 1348. In 
April it had reached Florence ; by August it was devastating 



2S4 General History of Europe 

France and Germany ; it then spread over England, attacking 
every part of the country during the year 1349. This disease, like 
other terrible epidemics, such as smallpox and cholera, came from 
Asia. Those who were stricken with it usually died in two or 
three days. It is supposed that about half the population of 
England was carried off by the "Black Death." 

473. The Peasant Revolt of 1381. In England there was 
growing discontent among the farming classes. Up to this time 
the majority of those who cultivated the land were serfs, or vil- 
lains, who belonged to some particular manor, paid dues to their 
lord, and worked for him (§§ 404-407). Hitherto there had been 
new farm hands who could be hired. The Black Death, by greatly 
decreasing the number of laborers, raised the wages of those who 
survived and created a great demand for them. The serfs now 
began to think the dues and work demanded of them by their lords 
very unjust. In 1381, not long after the death of Edward III, the 
peasants rose in revolt against their lot and the heavy taxes levied 
to carry on the unpopular French wars. They burned some of the 
manor houses belonging to the nobility and the rich bishops and 
abbots and so destroyed the registers in which their obligations 
were recorded. 

474. Disappearance of Serfdom in England. Although the 
peasants met with little success, serfdom rapidly disappeared in 
England. It became more and more common for the former 
serf to pay his dues in money instead of work. The landlord 
then either hired men to cultivate his fields or rented them to 
tenants. Sixty or seventy years after the Peasant Revolt the 
English farming population had in one way or another become 
free men and the serfs had practically disappeared. 

475. John Wycliffe. Among those accused of encouraging the 
Peasant Revolt was John Wycliffe, a teacher of Oxford. He 
sought to reform the Church and organized a group of "simple 
priests" to preach to the people. He translated the Bible from 
Latin into English so that it might be more commonly read. He 
found himself opposed by the Pope and the churchmen, and finally 
went so far as to deny that the Pope was the rightful head of the 



England and France during the Hundred Years' War 285 

Church. He was a forerunner of the Protestants, who appeared 
a hundred and fifty years after his time. 

476. Renewal of the Hundred Years' War (1415). The war 
between England and France almost ceased for about forty years 
after the death of Edward III. It was renewed in 141 5, and the 
English king, Henry V, won another great victory at Agincourt, 
similar to that won at Cressy. Once more the English bowmen 
slaughtered great numbers of French knights. Fifteen years later 
the English had succeeded in conquering all of France north of the 
Loire River, but a considerable region to the south still continued 
to be held by King Charles VII of France. He was weak and in- 
dolent and was doing nothing to check the English victories. 

477. Joan of Arc. Help came to the French from a most un- 
expected quarter. A peasant girl, Joan of Arc, heard voices and 
saw visions which led her to put on a soldier's armor, mount a 
horse, and go to the assistance of the great town of Orleans, which 
was being besieged by the English. She was accepted as a God- 
sent champion, and the English were routed. The "Maid of 
Orleans," as she came to be called, felt that her mission was 
fulfilled after the king had been crowned at Rheims in 1429. 
But the king would not let her go, and she continued to fight his 
battles with success. But the soldiers hated to be led by a woman, 
and she was soon surrendered by her enemies to the English. They 
declared that she was a witch, who had won her victories with the 
help of the devil. She was tried by a court of clergymen, found 
guilty, and cruelly burned alive in Rouen in 1431. 

478. England loses her French Possessions. Joan of Arc 
died bravely. Her example had given new courage to the dispir- 
ited French. Moreover, the English Parliament became reluctant 
to grant funds for a war that was going against them. From this 
time on England lost ground rapidly. Her troops were expelled 
from Normandy in 1450, and three years later southern France 
passed into the hands of the French king. The Hundred Years' 
War was over, and the great question which had existed since the 
Norman Conquest, whether English kings could succeed in ex- 
tending their sway across the English Channel, was finally settled. 



286 General History of Europe 

IV. England and France after the Hundred 

Years' War 

479. The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485). The close of the 
Hundred Years' War was followed in England by the Wars of 
the Roses, between the rival families Lancaster and York (both 
descended from Edward III), which were struggling for the 
crown. The badge of the house of Lancaster was a red rose, and 
that of York was a white one. Each party was supported by a 
group of wealthy and powerful nobles whose conspiracies, treasons, 
murders, and executions fill the annals of England during this 
disturbed period of her history. 

480 . Henry VII and the Power of the Tudor Kings. The 
Wars of the Roses were brought to an end when Henry VII, a 
descendant of Edward III on his mother's side, came to the 
throne in 1485. He was the first of the house of Tudor, from 
which he and his successors get their name, Tudors. A great 
part of the nobility, whom the kings had formerly feared, had 
perished in war or been executed by their enemies. This left 
the monarch far more powerful than ever before. He managed 
to control Parliament, and for a century or more after Henry VII's 
accession the Tudor kings exercised an almost despotic power. 
England ceased for a time to enjoy the free government for 
which the foundations had been laid under the Edwards. 

481. The French Estates General. The French had organized 
a parliament, called the Estates General, about the time that the 
English Parliament was growing up. It contained representatives 
of the towns as well as those of the clergy and nobility. It met 
from time to time during the Hundred Years' War, but was never 
able to force the king to admit that he had no right to levy 
taxes without consulting the Estates General. 

482. France establishes a Standing Army (1349). In France 
the closing years of the Hundred Years' War witnessed a great 
increase of the king's power through the establishment of a well- 
organized standing army. The feudal army had long since dis- 
appeared. Even before the opening of the war the nobles had 



England and France during the Hundred Years' War 287 

begun to be paid for their military services and no longer fur- 
nished troops as a condition of holding fiefs. But the companies 
of soldiers found their pay very uncertain and plundered their 
countrymen as well as the enemy. 

The Estates agreed in 1439 that the king should use a certain 
tax, called the taille, to support the troops necessary for the pro- 
tection of the frontier. This was a fatal concession, for the king 
now had an army and the right to collect what he chose to con- 
sider a permanent tax, the amount of which he later greatly in- 
creased ; he was not dependent, as was the English king, upon the 
grants made for brief periods by the representatives of the nation 
assembled in Parliament. 

483. How Louis XI strengthened the King's Power in 
France. Before the king of France could establish a compact, 
well-organized state it was necessary for him to reduce the power 
of the nobles. They had already been forbidden to coin money, 
maintain armies of their own, or tax their subjects, but some of 
them still were in a position to threaten the king at the close of the 
Hundred Years' War. The task of further reducing their power fell 
to Louis XI (1461-1483), a shrewd but unscrupulous monarch. 
Some of his vassals, especially the dukes of Burgundy, gave him 
a great deal of trouble. While the English nobles were killing 
one another in the Wars of the Roses, Louis managed to get a 
number of hitherto half-independent provinces of France — such as 
Anjou, Maine, Provence, etc. — under his immediate control. He 
humiliated in various ways the vassals who had ventured in his 
early days to combine against him. Louis was an efficient mon- 
arch in building up a strong government, but it sometimes seemed 
as if he gloried in being the most rascally among rascals and the 
most treacherous among traitors. 

484. England and France establish Strong National Govern- 
ments. Both England and France emerged from the troubles 
and desolations of the Hundred Years' War stronger than ever 
before. In both countries the kings had overcome the old menace 
of feudalism by destroying the influence of the great families. 
The king's government was becoming constantly more powerful. 



288 General History of Europe 

Commerce and industry increased the people's wealth and sup- 
plied the monarchs with the revenue necessary to maintain govern- 
ment officials and a sufficient army to keep order throughout 
their realms. They were no longer forced to rely upon the uncer- 
tain fidelity of their vassals. In short, England and France were 
both becoming modern states. 

QUESTIONS 

I. How did Wales come under the English kings ? Describe the 
struggle of Edward I to gain Scotland. What are the Highlands and the 
Lowlands of Scotland? 

II. Give an account of the beginnings of the English Parliament. 
When were the commons first invited to attend ? Give an account of 
the growth of the powers of Parliament. How is Parliament con- 
stituted ? Do you know the relative importance of the role of the 
House of Lords and the House of Commons today ? 

III. What was the reason for, and the general course of, the 
Hundred Years' War? What was the "Black Death"? What condi- 
tions led to the Peasant Revolt ? Who was John Wycliff e ? How was 
the Hundred Years' War brought to a close ? 

IV. What were the results of the Wars of the Roses? Why did 
the Estates General fail to become as powerful as the English Parlia- 
ment ? How did England and France begin to establish strong national 
governments ? 



CHAPTER XXIII 

ITALY AND THE RENAISSANCE 

I. The Italian Cities during the Renaissance 

485. The Flourishing of the Italian Cities ; the Renaissance. 
We have already seen how town life developed in northern 
Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (Chapter XX, 
above). In the following two centuries, while England and France 
were engaged in the weary Hundred Years' War, the Italian 
cities reached a degree of prosperity and refinement in buildings 
and art unknown north of the Alps. 

Within their walls the Humanists revived the lost knowledge 
of Greece and Rome (§454); learning, painting, sculpture, and 
architecture made such extraordinary progress that a special name 
is often given to the period when they flourished — the Renais- 
sance, 1 or new birth. The Italian towns, like those of ancient 
Greece, were each a little state with its own peculiar life and 
institutions. Some of them, like Rome, Milan, and Pisa, had been 
important in Roman times ; others, like Venice, Florence, and 
Genoa, did not become conspicuous until the time of the Crusades. 

The map of Italy at the beginning of the fourteenth century 
was divided into three zones. To the south lay the kingdom of 
Naples. Then came the states of the Church, extending diago- 
nally across the peninsula. To the north and west lay the group 
of city-states to which we now turn our attention. 

486. Venice and its Relations with the East. Of these city- 
states none was more celebrated than Venice, which in the history 
of Europe ranks in importance with Paris and London. This 
singular town was built upon a group of sandy islets lying in the 

1 This word, although originally French, has come into such common use that it is 
quite permissible to pronounce it as if it were English, — re-nd'sens. 

28Q 



290 



General History of Europe 



Adriatic Sea, about two miles from the mainland. It was pro- 
tected from the waves by a long, narrow sand bar similar to those 
which fringe the Atlantic coast from New Jersey southward. 
Even before the Crusades Venice had begun to engage in foreign 
trade. Its enterprises carried it eastward, and it early acquired 






fit" 




A Scene in Venice 

Boats, called gondolas, are used instead of carriages in Venice; one can reach 

any point in the city by some one of the numerous canals, which take the 

place of streets. There are also narrow lanes along the canals, crossing them 

here and there by bridges, so one can wander about the town on foot 

possessions across the Adriatic and in the Orient. It also ex- 
tended its sway over a considerable part of the Italian mainland 
to the west of the city. 

487. Height and Decline of Venice's Power. About the 
year 1400 Venice reached the height of its prosperity. It had a 
population of two hundred thousand, which was very large for 
those days. It had three hundred seagoing vessels, which went to 
and fro in the Mediterranean, carrying wares between the East 
and the West. It had a war fleet of forty-five galleys, manned 



Italy and the Renaissance 291 

by eleven thousand marines ready to fight the battles of the 
republic. But when Constantinople fell into the hands of the 
Turks (1453), and when, later, the route to India by sea was 
discovered (§§498, 499), Venice could not maintain control of 
the trade with the East, and while it remained an important city, 
it no longer enjoyed its former influence and power. 

Venice often came to blows with other rival cities, especially 
Genoa, but at home its citizens lived peaceably under the govern- 
ment of its Senate, its Council of Ten, and its duke, or Doge. 
Venice was a sort of republic managed by a group of merchant 
nobles. 

488. Role of the Italian Despots. Not only were the other 
Italian towns fighting one another most of the time but their 
government was often in the hands of despots, something like 
the old Greek tyrants (§96), who got control of towns and man- 
aged them in the interest of themselves, their relatives, and their 
friends. There are many stories of the incredible ferocity exhib- 
ited by the Italian despots of the Renaissance. It must be 
remembered that they were rarely legitimate rulers, but usurpers, 
who could hope to retain their power only so long as they could 
keep their subjects under their control and defend themselves 
against the attacks of equally illegitimate usurpers in the neigh- 
boring cities. This situation developed a high degree of sagacity, 
and many of the despots found it to their interest to govern 
well, and even to give dignity to their rule by encouraging artists 
and men of letters. 

489. Florence. The history of Florence differs in many ways 
from that of Venice and the despotisms of which Milan was 
an example. Florence was a republic, and all classes claimed the 
right to interest themselves in the government. This led to con- 
stant changes in the constitution and frequent struggles between 
the different political parties. When one party got the upper 
hand it generally expelled its chief opponents from the city. Exile 
was a terrible punishment to a Florentine, for Florence was not 
merely his native city — it was his country, and loved and hon- 
ored as such. 



292 



General History of Europe 



490. The Medici; Lo- 
renzo the Magnificent, By 

the middle of the fifteenth 
century Florence had come 
under the control of the great 
family of the Medici, whose 
members played the role of 
very enlightened political 
bosses. By quietly watching 
the elections and secretly 
controlling the choice of city 
officials they governed with- 
out letting it be suspected 
that the people had lost 
their power. The most distin- 
guished member of the house 
of Medici was Lorenzo the 
Magnificent (d. 1492) ; under 
his rule Florence reached the 
height of its glory in art and 
literature. 

As one wanders about Flor- 
ence today he is impressed 
with the contradictions of 
the Renaissance period. The 
streets are lined with the 
palaces of the noble families 
to whose rivalries much of 
the continual disturbance 
was due. The lower stories 
of these buildings are con- 
structed of great stones, like 
fortresses, and their windows 
are barred like those of a 
prison ; yet within they were often furnished with the greatest 
taste and luxury. For in spite of the disorder, against which the 




Cathedral 



and Bell 
Florence 



Tower at 



The church was begun in 1296 and 
completed in 1436. The great dome 
built by the architect Brunelleschi has 
made his name famous. It is three 
hundred feet high. The facade is mod- 
ern but after an old design. The bell 
tower, or campanile, was begun by the 
celebrated painter Giotto about 1335 
and completed about fifty years later. 
It is richly adorned with sculpture and 
colored marbles and is considered the 
finest structure of the kind in the world 



Italy and the Renaissance 



293 



rich protected themselves by making their houses half strongholds, 
the beautiful churches, noble public buildings, and the works of 
art which now fill the Florentine museums indicate that mankind 
has never, perhaps, reached a higher degree of taste and skill 




St. Peter's and the Vatican Palace 

This is the largest church in the world. It is about seven hundred feet 
long, including the portico, and four hundred and thirty-five feet high from 
the pavement to the cross on the dome. The reconstruction was begun as 
early as 1450, but it proceeded very slowly. Several great architects, Bra- 
mante, Raphael, Michael Angelo, and others were intrusted with the work. 
After many changes of plan the new church was finally in condition to 
consecrate in 1626. It is estimated that it cost over $50,000,000. The 
construction of the vast palace of the popes, which one sees to the right of 
the church, was carried on during the same period. It is said to have no 
less than eleven thousand rooms. Some of them are used for museums, and 
others are celebrated for the frescoes which adorn their walls, by Raphael, 
Michael Angelo, and others of Italy's greatest artists 

in the arts of peace than did the citizens of Florence under the 
rule of the despots and amid the turmoil of their restless town. 
491. Rome, the Capital of the Popes. During the period in 
which Venice and Florence became leaders in wealth and refine- 
ment Rome, the capital of the popes, underwent a great change. 
The popes had resided in France, at Avignon (§ 363), during 



294 General History of Europe 

the greater part of the fourteenth century, and then there had 
followed for forty years a struggle between rival lines of popes 
at Avignon and at Rome. Conditions were accordingly highly 
unfavorable for improving the city. But later, in the time of 
Lorenzo the Magnificent, it became possible for the popes to turn 
their attention to reviving the ancient glory of Rome. Architects 
and painters and men of letters were called in and encouraged 
by the popes to erect and adorn magnificent buildings and to 
collect a great and still famous library in the Vatican Palace. 

492. St. Peter's and the Vatican. The old church of St. Peter 
no longer satisfied the aspirations of the popes. It was gradually 
torn down, and the present church, with its vast dome and im- 
posing approach, took its place. The old palace of the Lateran, 
where the government of the popes had been carried on for a 
thousand years, had been deserted after the return from Avignon, 
and the new palace of the Vatican was gradually constructed to 
the right of St. Peter's. It has innumerable rooms, — great and 
small, — some of them, such as the famous Sistine Chapel, adorned 
by the most celebrated Italian painters of the Renaissance ; 
others are filled with ancient statuary. 

As one visits Venice, Florence, and Rome today he may still 
see, almost perfectly preserved, many of the finest of the build- 
ings, paintings, and monuments which belong to the period we 
have been discussing. 

II. The Art of the Renaissance 

493. Development of Art in Italy. We have already de- 
scribed briefly the work of the medieval architects and referred 
to the striking carvings that adorned the Gothic cathedrals and 
to the pictures of saints and angels in stained glass which filled 
the great church windows. But in the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries art developed in a most astonishing manner in Italy and 
set new standards for all of western Europe. 

Florence was the great center of artistic activity during the 
fifteenth century. The greatest sculptors and almost all of the 




Ghiberti's Doors at Florence 




Holy Family. (By Andrea del Sarto) 



Italy and the Renaissance 295 

most famous painters and architects of the time either were 
natives of Florence or did their best work in that city. 1 

With the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent (1492), who was a 
devoted patron of all the arts, the preeminence of Florence as an 
art center passed to Rome, which was fast becoming, as we have 
seen, one of the great capitals of Europe. 

494. Height of Renaissance Art — Da Vinci, Michael An- 
gelo, Raphael. During the sixteenth century the art of the 
Renaissance reached its highest development. Among all the 
great artists of this period three stand out prominently — Leo- 
nardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, and Raphael. The first two not 
only practiced but achieved distinction in the three arts of archi- 
tecture, sculpture, and painting. It is impossible to give in a 
few lines any idea of the beauty and significance of the work of 
these great geniuses. Both Raphael and Michael Angelo left be- 
hind them so many magnificent frescoes and paintings, and in 
the case of Michael Angelo statues as well, that it is easy to ap- 
preciate their importance. Leonardo, on the other hand, left but 
little completed work. His influence on the art of his time, which 
was probably greater than that of either of the others, came from 
his versatility, originality, and application of new methods. 

While Florence could no longer boast of being the art center 
of Italy, it still produced great artists, among whom Andrea del 
Sarto may be especially mentioned. But the most important 
center of artistic activity outside of Rome in the sixteenth century 
was Venice. The distinguishing characteristic of the Venetian 
pictures is their glowing color. This is strikingly exemplified in 
the paintings of Titian, the most famous of all the Venetian 
painters. 

495. Painting in Northern Europe. It was natural that art- 
ists from the northern countries should be attracted by the 
renown of the Italian masters and, after learning all that Italy 
could teach them, should return home to practice their art in 

1 Opposite the cathedral at Florence stands the ancient baptistery. Its northern 
bronze doors, with ten scenes from the Bible, surrounded by a very lovely border of 
foliage, birds, and animals, were completed by Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1452, after many 
years of labor. Michael Angelo declared them worthy to be the gates of heaven. 



296 General History of Europe 

their own particular fashion. About a century after painting be- 
gan to develop in Italy two Flemish brothers, Van Eyck by name, 
not only showed that they were able to paint quite as excellent 
pictures as the Italians of their day but also discovered a 
new way of mixing their colors superior to that employed in Italy. 
Later, when painting had reached its height in Italy, Albrecht 
Diirer and Hans Holbein the Younger in Germany vied with even 
Raphael and Michael Angelo in the mastery of their art. 

III. Early Geographical Discoveries 

496. Medieval Commerce on a Small Scale. The business 
and commerce of the medieval towns — even of the Italian cities, 
such as Venice and Genoa — was on what would seem to us a 
rather small scale. There were no great factories, like those which 
have grown up in recent times since the introduction of steam and 
machinery, and the ships which sailed the Mediterranean and the 
North Sea held only a very light cargo compared with modern 
merchant vessels. The gradual growth of a world commerce began 
with the sea voyages of the fifteenth century. These led to the 
exploration by Europeans of the whole globe, most of which was 
entirely unknown to the Venetian merchants and those who car- 
ried on the trade of the Hanseatic League. The Greeks and 
Romans knew little about the world beyond southern Europe, 
northern Africa, and western Asia, and much that they knew 
was forgotten during the Middle Ages. The Crusades took many 
Europeans as far east as Egypt and Syria. 

497. Marco Polo. About 1260 two Venetian merchants, the 
Polo brothers, visited China and were kindly received at Peking 
by the emperor of the Mongols. On a second journey they were 
accompanied by Marco Polo, the son of one of them. When they 
got back to. Venice in 1295, after a journey of twenty years, 
Marco wrote an account of his experiences which filled his readers 
with wonder. Nothing stimulated the interest of the West more 
than his fabulous description of the abundance of gold in Zipangu 
(Japan) and of the spice markets of the Moluccas and Ceylon. 




A Map of the Globe in the Time of Columbus 

In 1492 a German mariner, Behaim, made a globe which is still preserved in 
Nuremberg. He did not know of the existence of the American continents or of 
the vast Pacific Ocean. It will be noticed that he places Japan (Cipango) where 
Mexico lies. In the reproduction many names are omitted and the outlines of 
North and South America are sketched in so as to make clear the misconceptions 

of Columbus's time 



Italy and the Renaissance 297 

498. The Discoveries of the Portuguese. By the middle 
of the fourteenth century the Portuguese had discovered the 
Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Azores. Before this time no 
one had ventured along the coast of Africa beyond the arid region 
of Sahara. The country was forbidding, there were no ports, 
and mariners were, moreover, discouraged by the general belief 
that the torrid region was uninhabitable. In 1445, however, 
some adventurous sailors came within sight of a headland beyond 
the desert, and, struck by its luxuriant growth of tropical trees, 
they called it Cape Verde (the green cape). Its discovery put 
an end once for all to the idea that there were only parched 
deserts to the south. 

For a generation the Portuguese ventured farther and farther 
along the coast, in the hope of finding it coming to an end, so 
that they might make their way by sea to India. At last, in i486, 
Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope. Twelve years later (1498) 
Vasco da Gama, spurred on by Columbus's great discovery, after 
sailing around the Cape of Good Hope and northward beyond 
Zanzibar, aided by an Arab pilot, steered straight across the 
Indian Ocean and reached Calicut, in Hindustan, by sea. 

499. The Spice Trade. The Portuguese concluded treaties 
with the Indian princes and established trading stations at Goa 
and elsewhere. In 15 12 a successor of Vasco da Gama reached 
Java and the Moluccas, where the Portuguese speedily built a 
fortress. By 15 15 Portugal had become the greatest among sea 
powers, and spices reached Lisbon regularly without the interven- 
tion of the Mohammedan merchants or the Italian towns, which, 
especially Venice, were mortally afflicted by the change (§487). 

There is no doubt that the desire to obtain spices was at this 
time the main reason for the exploration of the globe. This 
motive led European navigators to try in succession every pos- 
sible way to reach the East — by going around Africa, by sailing 
west in the hope of reaching the Indies (before they knew of the 
existence of America), then, after America was discovered, by 
sailing around it to the north or south, and even sailing around 
Europe to the north. 



298 General History of Europe 

It is hard for us to understand this enthusiasm for spices. One 
former use of spices was to preserve food, which could not then 
as now be carried rapidly, while still fresh, from place to place ; 
nor did our conveniences then exist for keeping it by the use of 
ice. Moreover, spice served to make even spoiled food more palat- 
able than it would otherwise have been. 

500. Idea of reaching the Spice Islands by sailing Westward. 
It inevitably occurred to thoughtful men that the East Indies 
could be reached by sailing westward. Intelligent people knew, 
all through the Middle Ages, that the earth was a globe. The 
chief authority upon the form and size of the earth continued to 
be the ancient astronomer Ptolemy (§265), who had lived about 
a.d. 150. He had reckoned the earth to be about one sixth smaller 
than it is ; and as Marco Polo had given an exaggerated idea of 
the distance which he and his companions had traveled eastward, 
and as no one suspected the existence of the American continents, 
it was supposed that it could not be a very long journey from 
Europe across the Atlantic to Japan. 

501. Columbus discovers America (1492). In 1492, as we 
all know, a Genoese navigator, Columbus (b. 1451), who had had 
much experience on the sea, got together three little ships and 
undertook the journey westward to Zipangu, — the land of gold, — 
which he hoped to reach in five weeks. After thirty-two days 
from the time he left the Canary Islands he came upon land, the 
island of San Salvador, and believed himself to be in the East 
Indies. Going on from there he discovered the island of Cuba, 
which he believed to be the mainland of Asia, and then Haiti, 
which he mistook for the longed-for Zipangu. Although he made 
three later expeditions and sailed down the coast of South America 
as far as the Orinoco, he died without realizing that he had not 
been exploring the coast of Asia. 

502. Magellan's Expedition around the World. After the 
bold enterprises of Vasco da Gama and Columbus an expedition 
headed by the Portuguese Magellan succeeded in circumnavigat- 
ing the globe. There was now no reason why the new lands should 
not become more and more familiar to the European nations. 




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Italy and the Renaissance 299 

The coast of North America was explored principally by English 
navigators, who for over a century pressed northward, still in the 
vain hope of finding a northwest passage to the Spice Islands. 

503. The Spanish Conquests in America. Cortes began the 
Spanish conquests in the western world by undertaking the sub- 
jugation of the Aztec empire in Mexico in 15 19. A few years 
later Pizarro established the Spanish power in Peru. Spain now 
superseded Portugal as a maritime power, and her importance in 
the sixteenth century is to be attributed largely to the wealth 
which came to her from her possessions in the New World. 

By the end of the century the Spanish Main — that is, the 
northern coast of South America — was much frequented by ad- 
venturous seamen, who combined in about equal parts the occu- 
pations of merchant, slaver, and pirate. Many of these hailed 
from English ports, and it is to them that England owes the 
beginning of her commercial greatness. 

The exploration of the globe and the conquest, by European 
nations, of peoples beyond the sea led finally to the vast coloniza- 
tion of modern times, which has caused many wars but has served 
at the same time to spread European ideas throughout the world. 

QUESTIONS 

I. Describe the development of Italian towns during the Hundred 
Years' War. How was Italy divided in the fourteenth century? Give 
a picture of Venice at the height of her power. Describe the Italian 
despots. Describe Florence under the rule of the Medici. Give an ac- 
count of the rebuilding of Rome. Describe St. Peter's and the Vatican 
Palace. 

II. Give a brief account of Renaissance art in Italy. 

III. What geographical discoveries were made before 1500? What 
effects did explorations of this period have on commerce? What impor- 
tant part did the spice trade play in the exploration of the globe? 
What led Columbus to try to reach the Indies by sailing westward? 



BOOK VI. THE PROTESTANT REVOLT 
AND THE WARS OF RELIGION 

CHAPTER XXIV 
EMPEROR CHARLES V AND HIS VAST REALMS 

I. How Italy became the Battle Ground of the 
European Powers 

504. Charles VIII of France invades Italy. Louis XI of 
France, who had done so much to strengthen the kingly power, 
was succeeded by his son, Charles VIII (1483-1498), who had 
little of his father's sagacity. Charles dreamed of being a great 
conqueror, and his first step was to invade Italy on the ground 
that the kingdom of Naples belonged rightly to his house be- 
cause of an ancient claim dating back a couple of centuries. 

The Italian towns did little to oppose the army of the French 
king, and he actually got control of Naples for a short time. The 
ruler of Naples was a Spanish monarch, Ferdinand of Aragon, who 
had no more right to it than Charles. Charles's troops, however, 
became demoralized by the excellent wines and other pleasures of 
southern Italy, his enemies began to combine against him, and 
he was glad to escape with the loss of only a single battle from 
the land he had hoped to conquer. He died three years later, 
but the results of his seemingly foolish expedition were very 
important. 

505. Results of the Expedition of Charles VIII. In the first 
place, it was clear that the Italian towns did not constitute a 
nation which would combine to repulse invaders. From this time 
on, therefore, France, Spain, Austria, and the German emperors 
undertook successive expeditions with the object of bringing 

300 



Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 301 

various portions of the Italian peninsula under their sway. Spain 
and Austria were particularly successful in this, and Italy re- 
mained largely under foreign rule down to the latter part of the 




Court of the Palace at Blois 

The expedition of Charles VIII to Italy called the attention of French 
architects to the beautiful Renaissance style used there. As cannon had by 
this time begun to render the old kind of castles with thick walls and towers 
useless as a means of defense, the French kings began to construct magnifi- 
cent palaces, of which this is an excellent example 

nineteenth century, when it was unified under a single ruler and 
finally became the independent nation it is today. 

506. Spread of Italian Art. In the second place, the French 
learned to admire the art and culture of Italy. The nobles began 
to change their feudal castles, which since the invention of gun- 
powder were no longer impregnable, into luxurious palaces and 
country houses. The new scholarship of Italy also took root and 
flourished not only in France but in England and Germany as 
well, and Greek began to be studied outside of Italy. Conse- 
quently, just as Italy was becoming, politically, the victim of 
foreign aggressions, it was also losing, never to regain, that 



302 General History of Europe 

intellectual leadership which it had enjoyed since the revival of 
interest in Latin and Greek literature — the so-called Renaissance, 
spoken of above (§§454, 485). 

507. Francis I. Francis 1, who came to the French throne 
in 151 5, at the age of twenty, is one of the most famous of the 
French kings. He was gracious and chivalrous in his ideas of 
conduct, and his proudest title was "the gentleman king." Like 
his contemporaries Pope Leo X, son of Lorenzo de' Medici, and 
Henry VIII of England, he helped artists and men of letters and 
was interested in fine buildings, of which a striking example is 
shown on the preceding page. 

II. How Spain became a Great European Power 

508. Arab Civilization in Spain. The Mohammedan conquest 
served to make the history of Spain very different from that of 
the other states of Europe (§§ 306-307). One of its first and 
most important results was the conversion of a great part of the 
inhabitants to Mohammedanism. During the tenth century, which 
was so dark a period in the rest of Europe, the Arab civilization 
in Spain reached its highest development and exercised its in- 
fluence on Christian Europe to the north. Cordova, with its half 
million of inhabitants, its stately palaces, its university, its three 
thousand mosques, and its three hundred public baths, was 
perhaps unrivaled at that period in the whole world. 

509. The Rise of New Christian Kingdoms in Spain. But 
the Christians were destined to reconquer the peninsula. As early 
as the year 1000 (see map, p. 220) several small Christian king- 
doms — Castile, Aragon, and Navarre — had come into existence 
in the northern part of Spain. Castile, in particular, began to 
push back the Mohammedans and, in 1085, reconquered Toledo 
from them. By 1250, the long war of the Christians against the 
Mohammedans, which fills the medieval annals of Spain, had 
been so successfully prosecuted that Castile extended to the south 
coast and included the great towns of Cordova and Seville. The 
Christian kingdom of Portugal was already as large as it is today. 



Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 3°3 

The Moors, as the Spanish Mohammedans were called, held 
out for two centuries more in the mountainous kingdom of 
Granada, in the southern part of the peninsula. Not until 149 2 / 
after a long siege, did the Christians capture the city of Gra- 
nada and the last vestige of Mohammedan rule in the Spanish 
peninsula disappear. 

510. Spain becomes a European Power. The first Spanish 
monarch whose name need be mentioned here was Queen Isabella 
of Castile, who, in 1469, concluded an all-important marriage 
with Ferdinand, the heir of the crown of Aragon. It is with 
this union of Castile and Aragon that the great importance of 
Spain in European history begins. For the next hundred years 
Spain was to enjoy more military power than any other of the 
European states. 

In the same year that the conquest of the peninsula was com- 
pleted, the discoveries of Columbus, made under the auspices of 
Queen Isabella, opened up sources of undreamed-of wealth beyond 
the seas. The greatness of Spain in the sixteenth century was 
largely due to the riches derived from her American possessions. 
The shameless and cruel looting of the Mexican and Peruvian 
cities by Cortes and Pizarro, and the silver mines of the New 
World (§§ 501, 503), enabled Spain to assume, for a time, a 
position in Europe which her ordinary resources and the produc- 
tions of her own population would never have permitted. 

511. Revival of the Inquisition. Unfortunately, the most in- 
dustrious, skillful, and thrifty among the inhabitants of Spain— 
that is, the Moors and the Jews, who well-nigh supported the 
whole kingdom by their toil— were bitterly persecuted by the 
Christians. So anxious was Isabella to rid her kingdom of 
the infidels that she revived the court of the Inquisition, of which 
an account was given above (§399)- For several decades these 
Church courts arrested and condemned innumerable persons who 
were suspected of heresy, and thousands were burned at the stake 
during this period. These wholesale executions have served to 
associate Spain especially with the horrors of the Inquisition. 



304 General History of Europe 

III. The Empire of the Hapsburgs under Charles V 

512. Charles V's Empire. In the year 1500 a baby was born 
in the town of Ghent who was destined before he reached the age 
of twenty to rule, as Emperor Charles V, over more of Europe 
than anyone since Charlemagne. He owed his vast empire not 
to any conquests of his own but to an extraordinary series of 
royal marriages which made him heir to a great part of western 
Europe. These marriages had been arranged by his grandfather, 
Maximilian I, of the House of Hapsburg. In order to understand 
European history since 1500 we must learn something of Maxi- 
milian and the Hapsburg line. 

513. Reasons why the German Kings failed to establish a 
Strong State. The German kings had failed to create a strong 
kingdom such as that over which Louis XI of France or 
Henry VII of England ruled. Their fine title of emperor had 
made them a great deal of trouble and done them no good, as we 
have seen (§§345, 346, 356, 357). Their attempts to keep Italy 
as well as Germany under their power, and the alliance of the 
mighty bishop of Rome with their enemies, had well-nigh ruined 
them. Their position was further weakened by the fact that their 
office was not strictly hereditary. Although the emperors were 
often succeeded by their sons, each new emperor had to be elected, 
and those great vassals who controlled the election naturally took 
care to bind the candidate by solemn promises not to interfere 
with their privileges and independence. The result was that after 
the downfall of the Hohenstaufens Germany fell apart into a 
great number of practically independent states, of which none 
were very large and some were extremely small. 

514. The "Germanies" of the Sixteenth Century. In the 
sixteenth century there was no such Germany as that which 
precipitated the World War in 19 14, but only what the French 
called the "Germanies"; that is, two or three hundred states, 
which differed greatly from one another in size and character. 
This one had a duke, that a count, at its head, while others were 
ruled over by archbishops, bishops, or abbots. There were many 



Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 305 

cities, like Nuremberg, Frankfort, and Cologne, just as independ- 
ent as the great duchies of Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Saxony. 
Lastly there were the knights, whose possessions might consist of 
a single strong castle 
with a wretched vil- 
lage lying at its foot. 
The tiny realms of 
the knights were often 
insufficient to support 
them, and they turned 
to robbery for a liv- 
ing and plundered the 
merchants and towns- 
people. It is clear that 
these states, little and 
big, being all tangled 
up with one another, 
would be sure to 
have frequent disputes 
among themselves and 
be constantly fighting 
one another. The em- 
peror, as we have 
seen, was not power- 
ful enough to keep 
order, and each ruler 
had to defend himself 
when he was attacked. 




Charles V at the Age of Forty-eight 
(By Titian) 



515. The Imperial Title Hereditary in the House of Austria. 
The dukes of Austria, belonging to the Hapsburg line, were among 
the most important of the German princes, and the electors had 
got into the habit of choosing the emperor from that family. So 
the imperial title became, to all intents and purposes, hereditary 
in the Hapsburg line. The Hapsburgs were, however, far more 
interested in adding to their family domains than in advancing 
the interests of Germany as a whole. Indeed, the Holy Roman 



306 General History of Europe 

Empire was nearly defunct, and, in the memorable words of Vol- 
taire, it had ceased to be either holy, or Roman, or an empire. 

516. Maximilian and the Hapsburg Marriages. While still a 
very young man, Maximilian I married Mary of Burgundy, the 
heiress to the Burgundian realms, which included what we now 
call Holland and Belgium and portions of eastern France. In 
this way the House of Austria got a hold on the shores of the 
North Sea. Mary died in 1482, and her lands were inherited by 
her infant son, Philip. Maximilian's next matrimonial move was 
to arrange a marriage between the young Philip and the daughter 
and heiress of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. 

517. Charles and his Possessions. Philip, Maximilian's son, 
died in 1506, — six years after his eldest son, Charles, was born, — 
and his poor wife, Joanna, became insane with grief and was 
thus incapacitated for ruling. So Charles could look forward 
to an unprecedented accumulation of glorious titles as soon as 
his grandfathers, Maximilian of Austria and Ferdinand of Aragon, 
should pass away. 1 He was soon to be duke of Brabant, mar- 
grave of Antwerp, count of Holland, archduke of Austria, count 
of Tyrol, king of Castile, Aragon, and Naples, 2 and of the vast 
Spanish possessions in America — to mention a few of his more 
important titles. 

On the death of his grandfather Ferdinand of Aragon, Charles, 
a boy of sixteen, became the first "King of Spain," and many were 
his difficulties in controlling the formerly independent monarchies 
of which Spain had been built up. 

518. Charles elected Emperor (1519). But still further and 
more perplexing problems were to face Charles before he was 

1 Austria Burgundy Castile Aragon Naples, etc. 

(America) 

Maximilian I = Mary (d. 1482) Isabella = Ferdinand (d. 15 16) 

(d. 1519) dau. of Charles (d. 1504) 



the Bold (d. 1477) 
Philip (d. 1506) 



Joanna the Insane (d. 1555) 



Charles V (d. 1558) Ferdinand (d. 1564) = Anna, heiress to kingdoms 

Emperor, 1 5 19-15 56 Emperor, 15 56-1 564 of Bohemia and Hungary 

2 Naples and Sicily were in the hands of the king of Aragon at this time. 



Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 307 

twenty years old. It had long been Maximilian's ambition that 
his grandson should succeed him upon the imperial throne. After 
his death in 15 19 the electors finally chose Charles as emperor — 
the fifth of that name — instead of the rival candidate, Francis I 
of France. By this election the king of Spain, who had not yet 
been in Germany and who never learned its language, became its 
ruler at a critical juncture. 

519. Diet at Worms (1520). Germany had a national assembly 
called the diet, which met at irregular intervals,, now in this 
town, now in that, for Germany had no capital city. The princes 
and bishops and towns sent representatives to this assembly. 

It was this diet that Charles V summoned to meet him on the 
Rhine, in the ancient town of Worms, when he made his first 
visit to Germany in 1520. The most important business of the 
assembly proved to be the consideration of the case of a uni- 
versity professor, Martin Luther, who was accused of writing 
heretical books, and who had begun what proved to be the first 
successful revolt against the powerful medieval Church. 

QUESTIONS 

I. What were the results of the Italian expedition of Charles VIII ? 

II. What were the effects of the Mohammedan conquests of Spain ? 
Give an account of the expulsion of the Mohammedans from the 
peninsula. How did Spain become a European power? Describe the 
revival of the Inquisition in Spain. 

III. How was Charles V's vast empire accumulated? Why did the 
German kings fail to build up a strong, unified state ? 



CHAPTER XXV 

MARTIN LUTHER AND THE REVOLT OF GERMANY 
AGAINST THE PAPACY 

I. The Question of Reforming the Church ; Erasmus 

520. Break-up of the Medieval Church into Catholics and 
Protestants. By far the most important event during the reign 
of Charles V was the revolt of a considerable portion of western 
Europe against the popes. The medieval Church, which was 
described in a previous chapter, was in this way broken up, and 
Protestant churches appeared in various European countries which 
declared themselves entirely independent of the Pope and rejected 
a number of the religious beliefs which the medieval Church had 
taught. 

With the exception of England all those countries that lay 
within the ancient bounds of the Roman Empire — Italy, France, 
Spain, Portugal, as well as southern Germany and Austria — 
continued to be faithful to the Pope and the Roman Catholic 
Church. On the other hand, the rulers of the northern German 
states, of England, Holland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden 
sooner or later became Protestants. In this way Europe was 
divided into two great religious parties, and this led to terrible 
wars and cruel persecutions, which fill the annals of the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries. 

521. Sources of Discontent with the Church. The revolt be- 
gan in Germany. The Germans were at this time still good Catho- 
lics and accepted all the beliefs of the Church, but they were 
seriously troubled by the fact that the popes were so frequently 
Italians and that the amount of church contributions collected in 
Germany was so large. Great German prelates, like the arch- 
bishops of Mayence, Treves, and Cologne, contributed generously 

308 



Martin Luther and the Protestant Revolt 309 

to the papal treasury upon having their election confirmed by 
the Church authorities at Rome. The Pope enjoyed the right 
to fill the important church offices in Germany and sometimes 
appointed Italians, who received the revenue without going to 
Germany or performing the duties attached to the office. One 
person often held several church offices. 

At first, however, no one thought of withdrawing from the 
Church or of attempting to destroy the power of the Pope. All 
that the Germans wanted was that the contributions which flowed 
toward Rome should be lessened, and that the clergy should 
be upright, earnest men who should conscientiously perform their 
religious duties. 

522. Erasmus ( 1465-1536). Among the critics of the Church 
in the early days of Charles V's reign the most famous and in- 
fluential was Erasmus. He was a Dutchman by birth, but spent 
his life in various other countries — France, England, Italy, and 
Germany. He was a citizen of the world and in correspond- 
ence with literary men everywhere, so that his letters give us 
an excellent idea of the feeling of the times. He was greatly 
interested in the Greek and Latin authors, but his main purpose 
in life was to make people more intelligent, especially in religious 
matters. 

One of his best-known books was his Praise of Folly, in which 
he held up to ridicule many of the practices and popular beliefs 
which Luther later attacked. He believed that superstition would 
certainly disappear as people became better educated. It seemed 
to Erasmus that if everybody could read the Bible, especially the 
New Testament, for himself, it would be a great advantage. 

Erasmus believed, moreover, that the time was favorable for 
reform. As he looked about him he beheld intelligent rulers on 
the thrones of Europe, men interested in books and art and ready 
to help scholars and writers. There were Henry VIII of England 
and Francis I of France. Then the Pope himself, Leo X, the 
son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was a friend and admirer of 
Erasmus and doubtless sympathized with many of his views. 
The youthful Charles V was a devout Catholic, but he too agreed 



310 General History of Europe 

that there were many evils to be remedied. So it seemed to 
Erasmus that the prospects were excellent for a peaceful reform ; 
but, instead of its coming, his latter years were embittered by 
Luther's revolt and all the ill-feelings and dissensions that it 
created. 

II. Martin Luther and his Teachings 

523. Early Years of Luther. Martin Luther was born in 1483. 
He was the son of a poor miner. His father, however, was deter- 
mined that his son should be a lawyer, and so Martin was sent 
to the University of Erfurt. After he finished his college course 
and was about to take up the study of the law he suddenly 
decided to become a monk. 

He was much worried about his soul and feared that nothing 
he could do would save him from hell. He finally found comfort 
in the thought that in order to be saved he had only to believe 
sincerely that God would save him, and that he could not pos- 
sibly save himself by trying to be good. He gained the respect 
of the head of the monastery, and when Frederick the Wise of 
Saxony was looking about for teachers for his new university at 
Wittenberg, Luther was recommended as a good person to teach 
Aristotle ; so he became a professor. 

As time went on Luther began to be suspicious of some of the 
things that were taught in the university. He finally decided that 
Aristotle was, after all, only an ancient heathen who knew nothing 
about Christianity, and that the students had no business to study 
his works. He urged them to rely instead upon the Bible. 

524. Justification by Faith. Luther's main point was that man 
was so corrupt that he could do nothing pleasing to God. He 
could only repent his sins and have faith in God's promises. It 
was this faith that justified the repentant sinner in God's sight. 
So Luther came to regard the "good works" recommended by the 
Church — such as the frequent attendance at Mass, the repetition 
of prayers, pilgrimages, and the veneration of relics — as unneces- 
sary for salvation and sometimes misleading. 




AeTHERNA IRSE SVAE MENTIS SLWVLACHRA IVTHEFiyS 
ExPFiMXTXT W1TVS CERA LVCAE OCCIDVOS 

| -AA-D XX 



Luther as a Monk. (By Cranach, 1520) 

None of the portraits of Luther are very satisfactory. His friend Cranach 
was not, like Holbein the Younger, a great portrait painter. This cut shows 
the reformer when his revolt against the Church was just beginning. He 
was thirty-seven years old and still in the dress of an Augustinian friar, 

which he soon abandoned 




Portrait of Erasmus. (By Holbein) 

This wonderful picture by Hans Holbein the Younger (149 7-1 543) hangs in 
the Louvre gallery at Paris. We have every reason to suppose that it is an 
excellent portrait, for Holbein lived in Basel a considerable part of his life 
and knew Erasmus well. The artist was, moreover, celebrated for his skill 
in catching the likeness when depicting the human face. He later painted 
several well-known Englishmen, including Henry VIII and his little son, 

Edward VI 



Martin Luther and the Protestant Revolt 311 

Luther's teachings did not attract much attention until the 
year 151 7, when he was thirty-four years old. Then something 
occurred to give him considerable prominence. 

525. Luther's Theses on Indulgences (1517). The fact has 
already been mentioned that the popes had undertaken the re- 
building of St. Peter's, the great central church of Christendom 
(§§ 49 I ~492). The cost of the enterprise was very great, and in 
order to collect contributions for the purpose Pope Leo X ar- 
ranged for an extensive distribution of indulgences 1 in Germany. 

In October, 15 17, Tetzel, a Dominican monk, began preach- 
ing indulgences in the neighborhood of Wittenberg and making 
claims for them which appeared to Luther irreconcilable with 
Christianity as he understood it. He therefore, in accordance 
with the custom of the time, wrote out a series of ninety- 
five statements in regard to indulgences. These theses, as they 
were called, he posted on the church door and invited anyone 
interested in the matter to enter into a discussion with him on 
the subject. Luther did not intend to attack the Church and had 
no expectation of creating a sensation. The theses were in Latin 
and addressed, therefore, only to learned men. 

526. Luther's Address to the German Nobility (1520). Of 
Luther's popular pamphlets the first really famous one was his 
Address to the German Nobility, in which he calls upon the rulers 
of Germany, especially the knights, to carry out a reform of the 
Church, since he believed that it was vain to wait for the popes 
and bishops to do so. Luther denied that there was anything 
so sacred about a clergyman that he could not be dismissed by a 
ruler if he did not properly perform his holy duties. Luther 

1 An indulgence was a pardon, issued usually by the Pope himself, which freed the 
person to whom it was granted from a part or all of his stiff ering in purgatory. It did 
not forgive his sins or in any way take the place of true repentance and confession ; it 
only reduced the punishment which a truly contrite sinner would otherwise have had to 
endure, either in this world or in purgatory, before he could be admitted to heaven. 

It is a common mistake of Protestants to suppose that the indulgence was forgiveness 
granted beforehand for sins to be committed in the future. There is absolutely no foun- 
dation for this idea. A person proposing to sin could not possibly be contrite in the eyes 
of the Church, and even if he had secured an indulgence, it would, according to the 
theologians, have been quite worthless. 



312 General History of Europe 

claimed, moreover, that it was the right and duty of the rulers 
to punish a churchman who did wrong just as if he were the 
humblest layman. 

The Address to the German Nobility closed with a long list 
of evils which must be done away with before Germany could 
become prosperous. Luther saw that his view of religion really 
implied a social revolution. He advocated reducing the monas- 
teries to a tenth of their number and permitting those monks 
who were disappointed in the good they got from living in them 
freely to leave. He pointed out the evils of pilgrimages and of 
the numerous church holidays, which interfered with daily work. 
The clergy, he urged, should be permitted to marry and have fam- 
ilies like other citizens. The universities should be reformed and 
"the accursed heathen, Aristotle," should be cast out from them. 

527. Luther Excommunicated; Burning of the Papal Bull 
(1520). Luther had long expected to be excommunicated for his 
criticisms of the beliefs of the Church. But it was not until the 
autumn of 1520 that a papal bull or decree arrived condemning 
many of Luther's assertions as heretical and giving him sixty 
days to recant. The bull irritated many of the German rulers, 
who were quite willing to have a reformer bold enough to de- 
nounce evils which they themselves realized well enough. Some 
of the princes and universities published it, but in many cases 
it was ignored, and Luther's own ruler, the elector of Saxony, 
continued to protect his professor. 

Luther decided that he must make a public protest, and so he 
summoned his students to witness what he called "a pious reli- 
gious spectacle." He had a fire built outside the walls of Witten- 
berg and cast into it Leo X's bull condemning him, and a copy of 
the Laws of the Church, together with a volume of scholastic 
theology which he specially disliked. 

Yet Luther dreaded disorder. He was certainly sometimes 
reckless and violent in his writings and often said that bloodshed 
could not be avoided. Yet he always opposed hasty reform. He 
was reluctant to make changes, except in belief. He held that so 
long as an institution did not actually mislead, it did no harm. 



Martin Luther and the Protestant Revolt 313 

528. Luther summoned to the Diet at Worms (1521). When 
Charles V arrived in Germany to hold his first diet in 1520, the 
case of Luther was called to his attention by the papal representa- 
tive, who exhorted him to outlaw the heretic without further delay. 
While Charles seemed convinced of Luther's guilt, he could not 
proceed against him without serious danger. The monk had 
become a sort of national hero and had the support of the power- 
ful elector of Saxony. Other princes, who had ordinarily no wish 
to protect a heretic, felt that Luther's denunciation of the evils in 
the Church was very gratifying. After much discussion it was 
finally arranged that Luther should be summoned to Worms and 
be given an opportunity to face the representatives of the German 
nation and the emperor and to declare plainly whether he was the 
author of the heretical books ascribed to him and whether he still 
clung to the views the Pope had condemned. 

529. Luther's Defense. It was not proposed to give Luther 
any opportunity to defend his beliefs before the diet. He was 
simply asked whether a pile of Latin and German books and 
pamphlets placed before him were really his work and whether he 
would recant what he had written. He confessed that the volumes 
were his and admitted that his attacks had been overviolent at 
times. He said, however, that he believed no one could deny that 
decrees issued in the name of the Pope had sometimes gone 
against the conscience of good Christians and that the German 
people in particular had been plundered by church officials. If 
arguments from the Bible could be found to refute his statements 
he would gladly recant, but as things stood he could not do 
otherwise than he was doing. 

530. The Edict of Worms (1521). There was now nothing 
for the emperor to do but to outlaw Luther, who had denied the 
binding character of the commands of the head of the Church. 

The Edict of Worms declared Luther an outlaw on the following 
grounds : that he scorned and vilified the Pope, despised the 
priesthood and stirred up the laity to dip their hands in the blood 
of the clergy, denied free will, taught licentiousness, despised au- 
thority, advocated a brutish existence, and was a menace to 



314 General History of Europe 

Church and State alike. Everyone was forbidden to read or 
publish Luther's works or to give the heretic food, drink, or shel- 
ter. Moreover, he was to be seized and delivered to the emperor. 
So general was the disapproval of the edict that few were 
willing to pay any attention to it. Charles V immediately left 
Germany and for nearly ten years was occupied with the govern- 
ment of Spain and a succession of wars. 

III. The Revolt against the Papacy begins in 

Germany 

531. Luther begins a New Translation of the Bible. As 

Luther neared Eisenach upon his way home from Worms he was 
kidnaped by his friends and conducted to the Wartburg, a castle 
belonging to the elector of Saxony. Here he was concealed until 
any danger from the action of the emperor or diet should pass 
by. His chief occupation during several months of hiding was to 
begin a new translation of the Bible into German. 

532. The Revolt Begins. Hitherto there had been a great 
deal of talk of reform, but as yet nothing had actually been 
done. There was no sharp line drawn between the different 
classes of reformers. All agreed that something should be done 
to better the Church ; few realized how divergent were the real 
ends in view. The rulers listened to Luther because they were 
glad of an excuse to get control of the Church property and its 
revenues. The peasants listened because he put the Bible into 
their hands and they found nothing there that proved that they 
ought to go on paying the old dues to their lords. 

While Luther was quietly living in the Wartburg, translating the 
Bible, people began to put his teachings into practice. Some of the 
monks and nuns left their monasteries in his own town of Witten- 
berg. Some of them married, which seemed — in view of the pledges 
they had voluntarily taken — a very wicked thing to all those 
who held to the old beliefs. The students and citizens tore down 
the images of the saints in the churches and even went so far as to 
oppose the celebration of the Mass, the chief Catholic sacrament. 



Martin Luther and the Protestant Revolt 315 

Luther was greatly troubled by news of this disorderly reform. 
He did not approve of sudden and violent changes and left his 
hiding place to protest. He preached a series of sermons in Wit- 
tenberg in which he urged that all alterations in religious services 
and practices should be introduced by the government and not 
by the people. But his advice was not heeded. 

533. The Peasant War. In 1525 the serfs rose, in the name 
of "God's justice," to avenge their wrongs. Luther was not re- 
sponsible for the civil war which followed, though he had cer- 
tainly helped to stir up discontent. Some of the demands of the 
peasants were perfectly reasonable. The most popular expression 
of their needs was the dignified "Twelve Articles." In these 
they claimed that the Bible did not sanction any of the dues 
which the lords demanded of them, and that, since they were 
Christians like their lords, they should no longer be held as serfs. 

There were, however, leaders who were more violent and who 
proposed to kill the "godless" priests and nobles. Hundreds of 
castles and monasteries were destroyed by the frantic peasantry, 
and some of the nobility were murdered with shocking cruelty. 
Luther tried to induce the peasants, with whom, as the son of 
a peasant, he was at first inclined to sympathize, to remain quiet j 
but when his warnings proved vain he turned against them. He 
declared that they were guilty of the most fearful crimes and 
urged the government to put down the insurrection without pity. 

534. Cruel Suppression of the Peasant Revolt. Luther's ad- 
vice was followed with terrible exactness by the German rulers, 
and the nobility took fearful revenge on the peasants. In the 
summer of 1525 their chief leader was defeated and killed, and 
it is estimated that ten thousand peasants were put to death, 
many with the utmost cruelty. Few of the rulers or landlords 
introduced any reforms, and the misfortunes due to the destruc- 
tion of property and to the despair of the peasants cannot be 
imagined. The old exactions of the lords of the manors were in 
no way lightened, and the situation of the serfs for centuries 
following the great revolt was worse rather than better. 



316 General History of Europe 

IV. Division of Germany into Catholic and 
Protestant Countries 

535. Religious Division of North and South Germany. 
Charles V was occupied at this time by his quarrels with Francis I, 
and was in no position to return to Germany and undertake to 
enforce the Edict of Worms against Luther and his followers. 
Germany, as we have seen, was divided into hundreds of practi- 
cally independent countries, and the various electors, princes, 
towns, and knights naturally could not agree as to what could 
best be done in the matter of reforming the Church. Southern 
Germany decided for the Pope and remains Catholic down to the 
present day. Many of the Northern rulers, on the other hand, 
adopted the new teachings, and finally all of them fell away from 
the papacy and became Protestant. 

Since there was no one powerful . enough to decide the great 
question for the whole of Germany, the diet which met at Speyer 
in 1526 determined that pending the summoning of a Church 
council each ruler should "so live, reign, and conduct himself as 
he would be willing to answer before God and His Imperial 
Majesty." For the moment, then, the various German govern- 
ments were left to determine the religion of their subjects. 

536. Origin of the Term "Protestants." The emperor, 
Charles V, commanded the diet, which again met at Speyer in 
1529, to order the enforcement of the Edict of Worms against 
the heretics. 

The princes and towns that had accepted Luther's ideas drew 
up a protest, in which they claimed that the majority had no right 
to abrogate the edict of the former diet of Speyer, which had 
been passed unanimously and which all had solemnly pledged 
themselves to observe. Those who signed this appeal were called 
from their action Protestants. Thus originated the name which 
came to be generally applied to those who do not accept the rule 
and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. 

537. Diet at Augsburg and the Augsburg Confession. Ever 
since the diet at Worms the emperor had resided in Spain, 



Martin Luther and the Protestant Revolt 317 

busied with a succession of wars carried on with the king of 
France. But in 1530 he found himself at peace for the moment, 
and came to Germany to hold a brilliant diet of his German sub- 
jects at Augsburg, in the hope of settling the religious problem, 
which, however, he understood very imperfectly. He ordered the 
Protestants to draw up a statement of exactly what they believed, 
which should serve as a basis for discussion. Melanchthon, 
Luther's most famous friend and colleague, was intrusted with 
this delicate task. 

The Augsburg Confession, as his declaration was called, is 
a historical document of great importance. Melanchthon 's gentle 
disposition led him to make the differences between his belief and 
that of the old Church seem as few and slight as possible. He 
showed that both parties held the same fundamental views of 
Christianity. But he defended the rejection on the part of the 
Protestants of a number of the practices of the Roman Catho- 
lics, such as the celibacy of the clergy and the observance of 
fast days, 

538. Charles V's Attempt at Pacification. Certain theologians 
who had been loud in their denunciations of Luther were ordered 
by the emperor to prepare a refutation of the Protestant views. 
Charles V declared the Catholic statement to be "Christian and 
judicious" and commanded the Protestants to accept it. They 
were to cease troubling the Catholics and were to give back all 
the monasteries and Church property which they had seized. The 
emperor agreed, however, to urge the Pope to call a council to 
meet within a year. This, he hoped, would be able to settle all 
differences and reform the Church according to the views of the 
more liberal Catholics. 

539. The Peace of Augsburg (1555). For ten years after the 
emperor left Augsburg he was kept busy in southern Europe by 
new wars. In order to secure the assistance of the Protes- 
tants he was forced to let them go their own way. Meanwhile 
the number of rulers who accepted Luther's teachings gradually 
increased. Finally, there was a brief war between Charles and 
the Protestant princes, but there was little fighting. 



318 General History of Europe 

In 1555 the religious Peace of Augsburg was arranged. Its 
provisions are memorable. Each German prince and each town 
and knight directly under the emperor was to be at liberty to 
make a choice between the beliefs of the venerable Catholic 
Church and those embodied in the Augsburg Confession. If, 
however, an ecclesiastical prince — an archbishop, bishop, or ab- 
bot — declared himself a Protestant, he must surrender his pos- 
sessions to the Church. Every German was either to conform to 
the religious practices of his particular state or emigrate from it. 
Everyone was supposed to be either a Catholic or a Lutheran, 
and no provision was made for any other belief. 

540. No Freedom of Conscience. It is noteworthy that this 
religious peace in no way established freedom of conscience in 
religious matters, except for the rulers. The arrangement which 
permitted the various princes to determine the religion of their 
subjects was far more natural in those days than it would be 
in ours, for the Church and the State had been closely associated 
since the last centuries of the Roman Empire. No one as yet 
dreamed that it was possible to leave people to make up their 
own minds on religious matters without interference on the part 
of the government. 

QUESTIONS 

I. What dissatisfactions with the Church grew up among the German 
Catholics ? Contrast Erasmus's ideas of reform with those of Luther. 

II. Tell something of Luther's early life. How did Luther's theory of 
salvation differ from the orthodox view? What were the famous 
theses of Luther? How did they differ in their appeal from his Address 
to the German Nobility ? On what grounds was Luther excommuni- 
cated ? What was Luther's defense at Worms ? 

III. Describe some of the ways in which the revolt began. What was 
the Peasant War? How was it put down? 

IV. What is the origin of the term " Protestants"? How was Ger- 
many divided on the religious question ? What was the Augsburg Con- 
fession} What were the provisions of the Peace of Augsburg? What 
were its limitations? 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE PROTESTANT REVOLT IN SWITZERLAND AND 

ENGLAND 

I. Zwingli and Calvin 

541. Origin of the Swiss Confederation. For at least a cen- 
tury after Luther's death the great issue between Catholics and 
Protestants dominates the history of all the countries with which 
we have to do, except Italy and Spain, where Protestantism never 
took permanent root. In Switzerland, England, France, and Hol- 
land the revolt against the medieval Church produced discord, 
wars, and profound changes, which must be understood in order 
to follow the later development of these countries. 

We turn first to Switzerland, lying in the midst of the great 
chain of the Alps which extends from the Mediterranean to 
Vienna. During the Middle Ages the region destined to be in- 
cluded in the Swiss Confederation formed a part of the Holy 
Roman Empire and was scarcely distinguishable from the rest 
of southern Germany. As early as the thirteenth century the 
three "forest" cantons on the shores of the winding Lake of 
Lucern formed a union to protect their liberties against the 
encroachments of their neighbors the Hapsburgs. It was about 
this tiny nucleus that Switzerland gradually consolidated. Lucern 
and the free towns of Zurich and Bern soon joined the Swiss 
league. By brave fighting, the Swiss were able to frustrate the 
renewed efforts of the Hapsburgs to subjugate them. 

Various districts in the neighborhood joined the Swiss union 
in succession, and even the region lying on the Italian slopes of 
the Alps was brought under its control. Gradually the bonds 
between the members of the Swiss union and the Empire were 

3 r 9 



320 



General History of Europe 



broken. In 1499 they were finally freed from the jurisdiction of 
the emperor, and Switzerland became a practically independent 
country. Although the original union had been made up of 
German-speaking people, considerable districts had been annexed 




The Swiss Confederation in the Sixteenth Century 

in which Italian or French was spoken. 1 The Swiss did not, 
therefore, form a compact, well-defined nation, and consequently 
for some centuries their confederation was weak and ill-organized. 
542. Zwingli leads Revolt against the Old Church. In 
Switzerland the first leader of the revolt against the Church was 
a young priest named Zwingli, who was a year younger than 
Luther. He lived in the famous monastery of Einsiedln, near 



1 This condition has not changed ; all Swiss laws are still proclaimed in three languages. 



Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 321 

the Lake of Zurich, which was the center of pilgrimages on ac- 
count of a wonder-working image. "Here," he says, "I began to 
preach the Gospel of Christ in the year 15 16, before anyone in 
my locality had so much as heard the name of Luther." 

But the original cantons about the Lake of Lucern, which 
feared that they might lose the great influence that, in spite of 
their small size, they had hitherto enjoyed, were ready to fight 
for the old faith. The first armed collision between the Swiss 
Protestants and Catholics took place at Kappel in 1531, and 
Zwingli fell in the battle. The various cantons and towns never 
came to an agreement in religious matters, and Switzerland is 
still part Catholic and part Protestant. 

543. Calvin ,(1509-1564) and the Presbyterian Church. Far 
more important than Zwingli's teachings, especially for England 
and America, was the work of Calvin, which was carried on in 
the ancient city of Geneva, on the very outskirts of the Swiss 
Confederation. It was Calvin who organized the Presbyterian 
Church and formulated its beliefs. Born in northern France in 
1509, he belonged to the second generation of Protestants. He 
was early influenced by the Lutheran teachings, which had al- 
ready found their way into France. A persecution of the Protes- 
tants under Francis I drove him out of the country. At Basel 
he issued his great work, The Institute of Christianity. It was 
the first orderly exposition of the principles of Christianity from a 
Protestant standpoint and formed a convenient manual for study 
and discussion. 

Calvin was called to Geneva about 1540 and intrusted with 
the task of reforming the town, which had secured its independ- 
ence of the duke of Savoy. Calvin intrusted the management of 
church affairs to the ministers and the elders, or presbyters', 
hence the name " Presbyterian." The Protestantism which found 
its way into France was that of Calvin, not that of Luther, and 
the same may be said of Scotland (§ 575). 



322 



General History of Europe 



II. How England fell away from the Papacy 

544. Wolsey's Idea of the Balance of Power. Henry VIII 
came to the English throne when he was eighteen years old. His 
chief adviser, Cardinal Wolsey, deserves great credit for having 
constantly striven to discourage his sovereign's ambition to take 

part in the wars on 
the Continent. The 
argument of the 
cardinal that Eng- 
land could become 
great by peace bet- 
ter than by war was 
a momentous dis- 
covery. Peace, he 
felt, would be best 
secured by main- 
taining the balance 
of power on the 
Continent, so that 
no ruler should be- 
come dangerous by 
unduly extending 
his sway. This idea 
of the balance of 
power came to be recognized later by the European, countries as a 
very important consideration in determining their policy. But 
Wolsey was not long to be permitted to put his enlightened ideas 
into practice. 

545. Henry VIIFs Divorce Case. Henry had married Cath- 
erine of Aragon, the aunt of Charles V. Only one of their chil- 
dren, Mary, survived to grow up. As time went on Henry was 
very anxious to have a son and heir, for he was fearful lest a 
woman might not be permitted to succeed to the throne. More- 
over, he had tired of Catherine, who was considerably older 
than he. His anxiety to rid himself of Catherine was greatly 




^'ta^^ly 



Henry VIII 



Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 323 

increased by the appearance at court of a black-eyed girl of six- 
teen, named Anne Boleyn, with whom the king fell in love. 

Wolsey's failure to persuade the Pope to permit a divorce ex- 
cited the king's anger, and, with rank ingratitude for his minister's 
great services, Henry drove him from office (1529) and seized 
his property. From a life of wealth which was fairly royal, Wol- 
sey was precipitated into extreme poverty and soon died. 

Henry induced Parliament to cut off some of the Pope's revenue 
from England, but as this did not persuade Clement VII to grant 
the divorce, Henry lost patience and secretly married Anne Boleyn, 
relying on getting a divorce from Catherine later. 

Parliament, which did whatever Henry VIII asked, declared 
Henry's marriage with Catherine unlawful and that with Anne 
Boleyn legal. 

546. How Henry VIII threw off the Papal Authority. In 
1534 the English Parliament completed the revolt of the English 
Church from the Pope by assigning to the king the right to ap- 
point all the English prelates, and to enjoy all the revenues of 
the Church. In the Act of Supremacy Parliament declared the 
king to be "the only supreme head in earth of the Church of 
England," and that he should enjoy all the powers which the 
title naturally carried with it. 

547. Henry VIII no Protestant. It must be carefully ob- 
served that Henry VIII was not a Protestant in the Lutheran 
sense of the word. He was led, it is true, by Clement VII 's 
refusal to declare his first marriage illegal, to break the bond 
between the English and the Roman Church and to induce the 
English clergy and Parliament to acknowledge the king as su- 
preme head in the religious, as well as in the worldly, interests of 
the country. Important as this was, it did not lead Henry to 
accept the teachings of Protestant leaders, like Luther, Zwingli, 
or Calvin, and he cruelly persecuted some of their followers. 

Henry, however, authorized a new translation of the Bible into 
English. A fine edition of this was printed (1539), and every 
parish was ordered to obtain a copy and place it in the parish 
church, where all the people could readily make use of it. 



324 



General History of Europe 



548. Dissolution of the English Monasteries. Henry wanted 
money; some of the English abbeys were rich, and the monks 
were quite unable to defend themselves against the charges which 
were brought against them. A large number of scandalous tales were 
easily collected by Henry's agents, some of which may have been 

true. The monks were some- 
times indolent and sometimes 
violated their pledges to lead 
a good life. Nevertheless as 
a body they were kind 
landlords, hospitable to the 
stranger, and good to the poor. 
The royal commissioners 
took possession of the monas- 
teries and their lands and sold 
every article upon which they 
could lay hands, including the 
bells and even the lead on the 
roofs. The picturesque re- 
mains of some of the great 
abbey churches are still among 
the chief objects of interest to 
the sight-seer in England. 

549. Henry VIII's Third 
Marriage and the Birth of 
Edward VI. Henry's family troubles by no means came to an 
end with his marriage to Anne Boleyn. Of her too he soon tired, 
and three years after their marriage he had her executed on a 
series of monstrous charges. The very next day he married his 
third wife, Jane Seymour, who was the mother of his son and suc- 
cessor, Edward VI. It was arranged that should Edward die 
leaving no heirs to the throne he should be succeeded by Mary, 
Henry's daughter by his first wife, Catherine, and that Elizabeth, 
the daughter of Anne Boleyn, should be next in line of succes- 
sion. Henry's death in 1547 left the great problem of Protes- 
tantism and Catholicism to be settled by his son and daughters. 




\ 



Edward VI. (By Holbein) 

This interesting sketch was made be- 
fore Edward became king; he could 
have been scarcely six years old, as 
Holbein died in 1543 



Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 325 

III. England becomes Protestant 

550. Edward VFs Ministers introduce Protestant Practices. 

While the revolt of England against the papacy was carried 
through by the government at a time when the greater part of 
the nation was still Catholic, there was undoubtedly, under 
Henry VIII, an ever-increasing number of aggressive and ardent. 
Protestants who approved the change. During the six years of 
the boy Edward's reign — he died in 1553 at the age of sixteen — 
those in charge of the government favored the Protestant party 
and did what they could to change the faith of the people by 
bringing Protestant teachers from the Continent. 

A general destruction of all the sacred images was ordered ; even 
the beautiful stained glass, the glory of the cathedrals, was 
demolished, because it often represented saints and angels. The 
king was to appoint bishops, and Protestants began to be put into 
the high offices of the Church. Parliament decreed that thereafter 
the clergy should be free to marry. 

551. Queen Mary (1553-1558) and the Catholic Restoration. 
Edward VI was succeeded in 1553 by his half sister Mary, the 
daughter of Catherine, who had been brought up in the Catholic 
faith and held firmly to it. Her ardent hope of bringing her king- 
dom back once more to her religion did not seem altogether ill- 
founded, for the majority of the people were still Catholics at 
heart, and many who were not Catholics disapproved of the policy 
of Edward's ministers, who had removed abuses "in the devil's 
own way, by breaking in pieces." 

The Catholic cause appeared, moreover, to be strengthened by 
Mary's marriage with the Spanish prince, Philip II, the son of 
the orthodox Charles V. But although Philip later distinguished 
himself, as we shall see, by the merciless way in which he strove 
to put down heresy within his own realms, the English took care 
that he should have no hand in the government nor by any means 
be permitted to succeed his wife on the English throne. 

Mary succeeded in bringing about a nominal reconciliation be- 
tween England and the Roman Church. In 1554 the papal legate 



326 



General History of Europe 



restored to the communion of the Catholic Church the " Kneeling " 

Parliament, which theoretically, of course, represented the nation. 

During the last four years of Mary's reign the most serious 

religious persecution in English history occurred. No less than 



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Queen Mary. (By Antonio Moro) 

This lifelike portrait, in the Madrid collection, is by a favorite painter of 
Philip II, Mary's husband. It was painted about 1554, and one gets the same 
impressions of Mary's character from the portrait that one does from reading 

about her 



two hundred and seventy-seven persons were put to death for 
denying the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. The ma- 
jority of the victims were humble artisans and husbandmen. 
It was Mary's intention and belief that the heretics sent to the 
stake would furnish a terrible warning to the Protestants and 
tend to check the spread of the new teachings, but Catholicism 
was not promoted ; on the contrary, doubters were only convinced 



Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 327 

of the deep earnestness of the Protestants who could die so bravely 
for their faith. 

The Catholics, in turn, later suffered serious persecution under 
Elizabeth and James I, the Protestant successors of Mary. Death 
was the penalty fixed in many cases for those who obstinately 
refused to recognize the monarch as the rightful head of the Eng- 
lish Church, and heavy fines were imposed for the failure to 
attend Protestant worship. Two hundred Catholic priests are said 
to have been executed under Elizabeth, Mary's sister, who suc- 
ceeded her on the throne ; others were tortured or perished miser- 
ably in prison. 

QUESTIONS 

I. Give an account of the Swiss Confederation. What part did 
Zwingli play in the revolt against the Church? Give a brief account 
of John Calvin. 

II. What was the cause of the withdrawal of England from the con- 
trol of the Pope ? How did Henry VIII prove he was not a Protestant ? 
Give an account of the dissolution of the monasteries. 

III. Under what ruler did England first become a Protestant coun- 
try ? Give an account of the Catholic restoration under Queen Mary. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE WARS OF RELIGION 

I. The Council of Trent; the Jesuits 

552. Council of Trent ( 1545-1563). In the preceding chapters 
we have seen how northern Germany, England, and portions of 
Switzerland revolted from the papacy and established independent 
Protestant churches. A great part of western Europe, however, 
remained faithful to the Pope and to the old beliefs which had 
been accepted for so many centuries. In order to consider the 
important matter of reforming the Catholic Church and to settle 
disputed questions of religious belief a great Church council was 
summoned by the Pope to meet in Trent, on the boundary of 
Germany and Italy, in the year 1545. 

The Council of Trent did not complete its work for nearly 
twenty years. It naturally condemned the Protestant beliefs so 
far as they differed from the views held by the Catholics, and it 
sanctioned those doctrines which the Catholic Church still holds. 
It accepted the Pope as the head of the Church ; it declared 
accursed anyone who, like Luther, believed that man would be 
saved by faith in God's promises alone, for the Church held 
that man, with God's help, could increase his hope of salvation 
by good works. The ancient Latin translation of the Bible — 
the Vulgate, as it is called — was proclaimed the standard of 
belief, and no one was to publish any views about the Bible 
differing from those approved by the Church. 

553. The Index. At the Council's suggestion the Pope's 
officials compiled a list of works which Catholics were not to 
read lest their faith in the doctrines of the Church should be 
disturbed. Similar lists have been printed since from time to 

328 



The Wars of Religion 329 

time down to our own day. The establishment of this Index of 
Prohibited Books was one of the Council's most famous acts. 

554. Results of the Reform of the Catholic Church. Al- 
though the Council of Trent would make no compromises with 
the Protestants, it took measures to do away with certain evils 
of which both Protestants and devout Catholics complained. 
The bishops were ordered to preach regularly and to see that 
only good men were ordained priests. A great improvement 
actually took place — better men were placed in office, and many 
practices which had formerly irritated the people were perma- 
nently abolished. 

555. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556). The Catholic Church was 
further greatly strengthened by the rise of a powerful organiza- 
tion pledged to the support of the Pope and the Catholic teach- 
ings. This was the " Society of Jesus," or Jesuits, founded by a 
Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola. In 1538 he had summoned his fol- 
lowers to Rome, and there he received the sanction of the Pope. 
Loyola had been a soldier in his younger days and, therefore, laid 
great stress upon absolute and unquestioning obedience. Not only 
were all the members of the new association to obey the Pope as 
Christ's representative on earth, and to undertake without hesita- 
tion any journey, no matter how distant or perilous, which he 
might command, but each was to obey his superiors in the order 
as if he were receiving directions from Christ in person. The 
admirable organization and incomparable discipline of this society 
were the great secret of the later influence of the Jesuits. 

556. Activities of the Jesuits. The members were to pledge 
themselves to lead a pure life of poverty and devotion. A great 
number of the members were priests, who went about preaching, 
hearing confession, and encouraging devotional exercises. But 
the Jesuits were teachers as well as preachers and confessors. 
They clearly perceived the advantage of bringing young people 
under their influence ; they opened schools and seminaries and 
soon became the schoolmasters of Catholic Europe. So successful 
were their methods of instruction that even Protestants sometimes 
sent their children to their schools. 



330 



General History of Europe 



The Jesuits rapidly spread not only over Europe but throughout 
the whole world. Francis Xavier, one of Loyola's original little 
band, went to Hindustan, the Moluccas, and Japan. Brazil, 
Florida, Mexico, and Peru were soon fields of active missionary 
work at a time when Protestants as yet scarcely dreamed of 




Principal Jesuit Church in Venice 

The Jesuits believed in erecting magnificent churches. This is a good ex- 
ample. The walls are inlaid with green marble in an elaborate pattern, and 
all the furnishings are very rich and gorgeous 



carrying Christianity to the heathen. We owe to the Jesuits' 
reports much of our knowledge of the condition of America when 
white men first began to explore Canada and the Mississippi 
Valley. 

557. Accusations brought against the Jesuits. Protestants 
soon realized that the new order was their most powerful and 
dangerous enemy. Their apprehensions produced a bitter hatred 
which blinded them to the high purposes of the founders of the 



The Wars of Religion 331 

order and led them to attribute an evil purpose to every act of the 
Jesuits. They were popularly supposed to justify the most deceit- 
ful and immoral measures on the ground that the result would 
be "for the greater glory of God." 1 

II. Philip II and the Revolt of the Netherlands 

558. Division of the Hapsburg Possessions. The chief ally 
of the Pope and the Jesuits in their efforts to check Protestantism 
was the son of Emperor Charles V, Philip II of Spain. Charles V, 
crippled with the gout and old before his time, laid down the 
cares of government in 1555-15 56. To his brother, Ferdinand, 
who had acquired by marriage the kingdoms of Bohemia and 
Hungary, Charles had earlier transferred the German possessions 
of the Hapsburgs. To his son, Philip II (1 556-1 598), he gave 
Spain with its great American colonies, Milan, the kingdom of 
the Two Sicilies, and the Netherlands (see table, p. 306 n.). 

559. The Netherlands. The Netherlands, which were to cause 
Philip his first and greatest trouble, included seventeen provinces 
which Charles V had inherited from his grandmother, Mary of 
Burgundy (§ 516). They occupied the position on the map 
where we now find the kingdoms of Holland and Belgium. In 
the north the hardy Germanic population had been able, by 
means of dikes which kept out the sea, to reclaim large tracts 
of lowlands. Here considerable cities had grown up — Harlem, 
Leyden, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam. To the south were the 
flourishing towns of Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, and Antwerp, which 
had for hundreds of years been centers of manufacture and trade. 

560. Philip IPs Harsh Attitude toward the Netherlands; 
Alva. Philip did everything to alienate all classes in the Nether- 
lands and to increase their natural hatred and lively suspicion of 

1 As time went on the Jesuits found themselves involved in difficulties with the vari- 
ous European governments, largely because in the eighteenth century they undertook 
great commercial enterprises, and for this and other reasons lost the confidence of even 
the Catholics. Convinced that the order had outgrown its usefulness, the Pope abolished 
it in 1773. ^ was, however, restored in 1814 and now again has thousands of members. 



332 



General History of Europe 



the Spaniards. What was still worse, he proposed that the In- 
quisition (§§ 399, 511) should carry on its work far more actively 
than hitherto and put an end to the heresy which appeared to 
him to defile his fair realms. 

For ten years the people suffered Philip's rule; nevertheless 
their king, instead of listening to the protests of their leaders, who 

were quite as earnest 
Catholics as himself, ap- 
peared to be bent on the 
destruction of the land. 
So in 1566 some five 
hundred of the nobles 
ventured to protest 
against Philip's policy. 

Thereupon Philip took 
a step which led finally 
to the revolt of the Neth- 
erlands. He decided to 
put down the rebellion 
by dispatching to the low 
countries the remorseless 
duke of Alva, whose con- 
duct has made his name 
synonymous with blind 
and unmeasured cruelty. 
Alva's administration from 1567 to 1573 and the atrocities of his 
rough soldiers produced a veritable reign of terror. 

561. William of Orange, called the Silent (i534-i584). The 
Netherlands found a leader in William, Prince of Orange. He 
is a national hero whose career bears a striking resemblance to 
that of Washington. Like the American patriot, he undertook 
the seemingly hopeless task of freeing his people from the oppres- 
sive rule of a distant king. To the Spaniards he appeared to be 
only an impoverished nobleman at the head of a handful of 
armed peasants and fishermen, contending against the sovereign 
of the richest realm in the world. 




Philip II. (By Antonio Moro) 



The Wars of Religion 333 

William found his main support in the northern provinces, of 
which Holland was the chief. The Dutch, who had very generally 
accepted Protestant teachings, were purely German in blood, 
while the people of the southern provinces, who adhered (as 
they still do) to the Roman Catholic faith, were more akin to 
the population of northern France. 

The Spanish soldiers found little trouble in defeating the troops 
which William collected. Like Washington, he seemed to lose al- 
most every battle and yet was never conquered. The first successes 
of the Dutch were gained by their bold mariners, who captured 
Spanish ships and sold them in Protestant England. Encouraged 
by this, many of the towns in the northern provinces of Holland 
and Zealand ventured to choose William as their governor, al- 
though they did not throw off their allegiance to Philip. In this 
way .these two provinces became the nucleus of the United 
Netherlands. 

562. Origin of the Dutch Republic. Alva recaptured a number 
of the revolted towns and treated their inhabitants with his cus- 
tomary cruelty ; even women and children were slaughtered in 
cold blood. But instead of quenching the rebellion he aroused the 
Catholic southern provinces to revolt. 

This revolt was, however, only temporary. Wiser and more 
moderate governors were sent by Philip to the Netherlands, and 
they soon succeeded in again winning the confidence of the south- 
ern Catholic provinces. So the northern provinces went their own 
way. Guided by William the Silent, they refused to consider the 
idea of again recognizing Philip as their king. In 1579 seven 
provinces, all lying north of the mouths of the Rhine and the 
Scheldt, formed the new and firmer Union of Utrecht. The arti- 
cles of this union served as a constitution for the United Prov- 
inces, or Dutch Republic, which, two years later, at last formally 
declared itself independent of Spain. 

563. Assassination of William the Silent. Philip realized 
that William was the soul of the revolt and that without him it 
might be put down. The king therefore offered to confer a title 
of nobility and a large sum of money on anyone who should 



334 General History of Europe 

make way with the Dutch patriot. After several unsuccessful 
attempts, William, who had been chosen hereditary governor of 
the United Provinces, was shot in his house at Delft, 1584. He 
died praying the Lord to have pity upon his soul and "on this 
poor people." 

564. Independence of the United Provinces. The Dutch had 
long hoped for aid from Queen Elizabeth or from the French, but 
had heretofore been disappointed. At last the English queen 
sent troops to their assistance. Elizabeth's policy so enraged 
Philip that he at last decided to attempt the conquest of Eng- 
land. The destruction of the "Armada," the great fleet which 
he equipped for that purpose (§ 581), interfered with further 
attempts to subjugate the United Provinces, which might other- 
wise have failed to maintain their liberty. Moreover, Spain's 
resources were being rapidly exhausted, and the State was on the 
verge of bankruptcy in spite of the wealth which she had been 
drawing from across the sea. But even though Spain had to sur- 
render the hope of winning back the lost provinces, which now 
became a small but important European power, she refused for- 
mally to acknowledge their independence until 1648 (Peace of 
Westphalia, §§ 589, 590). 

III. The Huguenot Wars in France 

565. Beginnings of Protestantism in France. The history 
of France during the latter part of the sixteenth century is little 
more than a chronicle of a long and bloody series of civil wars 
between the Catholics and Protestants. 

Francis I had no special interest in religious matters, but he 
was shocked by an act of desecration ascribed to the Protestants, 
and in consequence forbade the circulation of Protestant books. 
About 1535 several adherents of the new faith were burned, and 
Calvin was forced to flee to Basel, where he prepared a defense 
of his beliefs which he published as a sort of preface to his famous 
Institute of Christianity (§ 543). Francis finally became so in- 
tolerant that he ordered the massacre of three thousand defenseless 



The Wars of Religion 335 

peasants who dwelt on the slopes of the Alps, and whose only 
offense was adherence to the simple teachings of the Waldensians 

(§396). 

Francis's son, Henry II (1547-1559), swore to extirpate the 
Protestants, and hundreds of them were burned. He was acci- 
dentally killed and left his kingdom to three weak sons, the last 
scions of the house of Valois, who succeeded him in turn during 
a period of unprecedented civil war and public calamity. 

When his second son, Charles IX (1560-15 74), came to the 
throne he was but ten years old, so that his mother, Catherine 
of Medici, of the famous Florentine family, claimed the right to 
conduct the government for her son until he reached manhood. 

566. The Huguenots and their Political Aims. By this 
time the Protestants in France had become a powerful party. 
They were known as Huguenots 1 and accepted the religious 
teachings of their fellow countryman Calvin. Many of them, 
including their great leader Coligny, belonged to the nobility. 
They had a strong support in the king of the little realm of 
Navarre, on the southern boundary of France. He belonged to 
a side line of the French royal house, known as the Bourbons, 
who were later to occupy the French throne. It was inevitable 
that the Huguenots should try to get control of the government, 
and they consequently formed a political as well as a religious 
party and were often fighting, in the main, for worldly ends. 

567. Opening of the Huguenot Wars (1562). As the duke of 
Guise — an ardent Catholic nobleman — was passing through the 
town of Vassy on a Sunday he found a thousand Huguenots 
assembled in a barn for worship. The duke's followers rudely 
interrupted the service, and a tumult arose in which the troops 
killed a considerable number of the defenseless multitude. The 
news of this massacre aroused the Huguenots and was the be- 
ginning of a war which continued, broken only by short truces, 
for over thirty years. As in the other religious wars of the 
time, both sides exhibited inhuman cruelty. For a generation 
there were burnings, pillage, and atrocities throughout the realm. 

1 The origin of this name is uncertain. 



336 



General History of Europe 



France renewed in civil war all the horrors of the English inva- 
sions of the Hundred Years' War. 

568. Massacre of St. Bartholomew (1572). For a time Charles 
IX and his mother, Catherine of Medici, established friendly 
terms with the great Huguenot leader Coligny, who even became 

a sort of prime minister. 
He was anxious that both 
Catholics and Huguenots 
should join in a great na- 
tional war against France's 
old enemy the Hapsburgs 
of Spain. The strict Cath- 
olic party of the Guises 
frustrated this plan by a 
most fearful expedient. 
They easily induced Cath- 
erine of Medici to believe 
that she was being de- 
ceived by Coligny, and an 
assassin was engaged to 
put him out of the way ; 
but the scoundrel missed 
his aim and only wounded 
his victim. Fearful lest 
the young king, who was 
faithful to Coligny, should 
discover her part in the attempted murder, Catherine invented 
a story of a great Huguenot conspiracy. It was arranged that at 
a given signal a general massacre of the Huguenots should begin 
on the eve of St. Bartholomew's Day (August 23, 1572). No less 
than two thousand Protestants were ruthlessly murdered in Paris 
before the end of the next day. The news of this attack spread 
into the provinces, and it is probable that, at the very least, ten 
thousand more Protestants were put to death outside of the capital. 

569. Henry IV ( i589-i6io ) accepts the Catholic Faith. Civil 
war again broke out and was accompanied by a complicated 




Henry IV of France 

This spirited portrait of Henry of Na- 
varre gives an excellent impression of his 
geniality and good sense 



The Wars of Religion 337 

struggle between claimants of the throne of France, as a result 
of which the Huguenot Henry of Navarre ascended the throne as 
Henry IV in 1589. 

The new king had many enemies, and his kingdom was devas- 
tated and demoralized by years of war. He soon saw that he 
must accept the religion of the majority of his people if he wished 
to reign over them. He accordingly asked to be readmitted to 
the Catholic Church (1593), excusing himself on the ground that 
"Paris was worth a Mass." He did not forget his old friends, 
however, and in 1598 he issued the Edict of Nantes, which insured 
by law some protection for the Protestants. 

570. The Edict of Nantes. By this edict of toleration the 
Calvinists were permitted to hold services in all the towns and 
villages where they had previously held them, but in Paris and a 
number of other towns all Protestant services were prohibited. 
The Protestants Were to enjoy the same political rights as Catholics 
and to be eligible to government offices. A number of fortified 
towns were to remain in the hands of the Huguenots, where they 
could defend themselves if attacked. 

571. Ministry of Sully. Henry IV chose Sully, an upright 
and able Calvinist, for his chief minister. Sully set to work to 
reestablish the kingly power, which had suffered greatly under 
the last three brothers of the house of Valois. 

In 1 6 10 Henry IV, like William the Silent, was assassinated 
just in the midst of his greatest usefulness to his country. Sully 
could not agree with the regent, Henry's widow, and so gave up 
his position and retired to private life. 

572. Richelieu. Before many years Richelieu, perhaps the 
greatest minister France has ever had, rose to power, and from 
1624 to his death in 1642 he governed France for Henry IV's son, 
Louis XIII (1610-1643). Unlike Sully he was a Catholic and 
was made a cardinal by the Church. He reduced the power of the 
Huguenots by depriving them of their fortified towns, not so much 
on religious grounds as on account of the danger they had become 
to the king's power. Something will be said of his policy in con- 
nection with the Thirty Years' War (§ 588). 



338 General History of Europe 

IV. England under Queen Elizabeth 

573. England under Elizabeth (1558-1603). The long and 
disastrous civil war between Catholics and Protestants which 
desolated France in the sixteenth century had happily no counter- 
part in England. During her long reign Queen Elizabeth suc- 
ceeded not only in maintaining peace at home but in repelling the 
attacks which threatened her realm from without. 

A wealthy middle class was growing up in England who made 
their money in sheep raising, manufacture, and commerce. English 
trade was greatly extended, and the bold mariners of Elizabeth's 
time sailed about the whole globe, seeking new routes, capturing 
Spanish ships, plundering Spanish colonies, and sometimes engag- 
ing in the horrible traffic in negro slaves, which they seized in 
Africa and sold in the Americas. 

Houses were more comfortable than they had been, and those 
who could afford them wore very fine clothes. Wines were imported 
from the Continent, and tobacco was introduced, but coffee and 
tea were as yet unknown in England. Pewter plates and spoons 
began to replace the wooden ones, and chimneys and window 
glass rendered houses comfortable. Mattresses and pillows took 
the place of straw pallets and the wooden billets formerly used. 
People continued, however, to eat with knives or with their fingers, 
for forks did not come in until later. 

But while the sheep raising made a few rich, it impoverished 
many small farmers whose land fell into the hands of those who 
inclosed it for grazing tracts. The "inclosures" also included 
stretches of "commons," on which farmers and laborers had for- 
merly pastured their animals free of charge. The inclosures caused 
great hardship during the whole sixteenth century, and paupers 
and tramps so increased that laws had to be passed to provide 
for them. The poor law enacted at the close of Elizabeth's reign 
was in force down to the nineteenth century. 

Elizabeth's reign was celebrated for its great writers, like 
Shakespeare, Bacon, and Spenser. Poetry, the drama, and science 
all flourished (§§ 595, 596, 599). 




Portrait of Queen Elizabeth 



Elizabeth, the first woman to rule England, deemed herself a very handsome 

and imposing person. She was fond of fine clothes and doubtless had on 

her best when she sat for her portrait 



Mary Queen of Scots and Darnley 



Mary had been married to the heir to the French throne when she was six- 
teen. Her French husband, Francis II, died less than three years after. She 
then returned to Scotland and married her cousin Lord Darnley in 1565, 
when she was twenty-three years old 



The Wars of Religion 339 

574. Elizabeth establishes the Church of England. Upon the 
death of Queen Mary (§551), in 1558, the English government 
became once more Protestant. Queen Elizabeth had a new revised 
edition issued of the Book of Common Prayer which had been 
prepared in the time of her half brother, Edward VI. This con- 
tained the services which the government ordered to be performed 
in all the churches of England. All her subjects were required to 
accept the queen's views and to go to church, and ministers were 
to use no other than the official prayer book. Elizabeth did not 
adopt the Presbyterian system advocated by Calvin but retained 
many features of the Catholic Church, including the bishops and 
archbishops. So the Anglican Church, as it was called, followed a 
middle path halfway between the Lutherans and Calvinists on the 
one hand and the Catholics on the other. 

Elizabeth's first Parliament gave the sovereign the powers of 
supreme head of the Church of England, although the title, which 
her father, Henry VIII, had assumed, was not revived. 

The Church of England still exists in much the same form 
in which it was established in the first years of Elizabeth's reign, 
and the prayer book is still used, although Englishmen are no 
longer required to attend church and may hold any religious views 
they please without being interfered with by the government. 

575. Presbyterian Church established in Scotland. Conditions 
in Scotland caused much trouble for Elizabeth. There, shortly 
after her accession, the ancient Catholic Church was abolished, 
for the nobles were anxious to get the lands of the bishops into 
their own hands and enjoy the revenue from them. John Knox, 
a veritable second Calvin in his stern energy, secured the intro- 
duction of the Presbyterian form of faith and church government 
which still prevails in Scotland. 

576. Mary Stuart, the Scotch Queen, the Hope of the Catho- 
lics. In 1 56 1 the Scotch queen, Mary Stuart, whose French hus- 
band, Francis II, had just died, landed at Leith. She was but 
nineteen years old, of great beauty and charm, and, by reason 
of her Catholic faith and French training, almost a foreigner to 
her subjects. Her grandmother was a sister of Henry VIII, and 



340 General History of Europe 

Mary claimed to be the rightful heiress to the English throne 
should Elizabeth die childless. Consequently the beautiful Queen 
of Scots became the hope of all those who wished to bring back 
England and Scotland to the Roman Catholic faith. Chief among 
these were Philip II of Spain and the powerful French family, the 
Guises (§§ 567, 568), to which Mary's mother had belonged. 

Mary quickly discredited herself with both Protestants and 
Catholics by her conduct. She was suspected of being implicated 
in the death of her second husband, Lord Darnley, in order to 
marry a nobleman named Bothwell. How far Mary was responsible 
for her husband's death no one can be sure. It is certain that she 
later married Bothwell and that her indignant subjects thereupon 
deposed her as a murderess. After fruitless attempts to regain 
her power she abdicated in favor of her infant son, James VI, and 
then fled to England to appeal to Elizabeth. While the prudent 
Elizabeth denied the right of the Scotch to depose their queen, 
she was afraid of her claims and took good care to keep her rival 
practically a prisoner. 

577. The Rising in the North (i569) and Catholic Plans for 
deposing Elizabeth. As time went on it became increasingly 
difficult for Elizabeth to adhere to her policy of moderation in 
the treatment of the Catholics. A rising in the north of England 
(1569) showed that there were many who would gladly reestab- 
lish the Catholic faith by freeing Mary and placing her on the 
English throne. This was followed by the excommunication of 
Elizabeth by the Pope, who at the same time absolved her sub- 
jects from their allegiance to their heretical ruler. Happily for 
Elizabeth the rebels could look for no help either from Philip II 
or the French king. The Spaniards had their hands full, for 
the war in the Netherlands had just begun; and Charles IX, 
who had accepted Coligny as his adviser, was at that moment in 
hearty accord with the Huguenots. The rising in the North was 
suppressed, but the English Catholics continued to look to Philip 
for help. They opened correspondence with Alva and invited 
him to come with six thousand Spanish troops to dethrone Eliza- 
beth and make Mary Stuart queen of England in her stead. 




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The Wars of Religion 341 

Alva hesitated, for he thought that it would be better to kill 
Elizabeth, or at least capture her. Meanwhile the plot was dis- 
covered and came to naught. 

578. Relations between England and Catholic Ireland. One 
hope of the Catholics has not yet been mentioned, namely, 
Ireland, whose relations with England from very early times down 
to the present day form one of the most tragic pages in the 
history of Europe. The population was divided into numerous 
clans, and their chieftains fought constantly with one another as 
well as with the English, who were vainly endeavoring to subju- 
gate the island. 

Several attempts were made by Catholic leaders to land troops 
in Ireland with the purpose of making the island the base for an 
attack on England. Elizabeth's officers were able to frustrate 
these enterprises, but the resulting disturbances greatly increased 
the misery of the Irish. In 1582 no less than thirty thousand 
people are said to have perished, chiefly from starvation. 

579. Persecution of the English Catholics. Two Jesuits were 
sent to England in 1580 to encourage the adherents of their faith. 
Parliament now grew more intolerant and ordered fines and im- 
prisonment to be inflicted on those who said or heard Mass or 
who refused to attend the English services. One of the Jesuit 
emissaries was cruelly tortured and executed for treason, the other 
escaped to the Continent. In the spring of 1582 the first attempt 
by the Catholics to assassinate the heretical queen was made at 
Philip's instigation. It was proposed that when Elizabeth was 
out of the way an army should be sent to England to support 
the Catholics. 

580. Execution of Mary Queen of Scots (i587). Mary Queen 
of Scots did not live to witness the attempt. She became impli- 
cated in another plot for the assassination of Elizabeth. Parlia- 
ment now realized that as long as Mary lived Elizabeth's life was 
in constant danger; whereas if Mary were out of the way, 
Philip II would have no interest in the death of Elizabeth, since 
Mary's son, James VI of Scotland, who would succeed Elizabeth 
on the English throne, was a Protestant. Elizabeth was therefore 



342 General History of Europe 

reluctantly persuaded by her advisers to sign a warrant for Mary's 
execution in 1587, and the Scotch queen was beheaded. 

581. Destruction of the Spanish Armada (i588). Philip II, 
however, by no means gave up his project of reclaiming Protes- 
tant England. In 1588 he brought together a great fleet, includ- 
ing his best and largest warships, which was proudly called by 
the Spaniards the "Invincible Armada" (that is, fleet). This 
was to sail through the English Channel to the Netherlands and 
bring over the Spanish commander there and his veterans, who, 
it was expected, would soon make an end of Elizabeth's raw 
militia. The English ships were inferior to those of Spain in size, 
although not in number, but they had trained commanders, such 
as Francis Drake and Hawkins. 

These famous captains had long sailed the Spanish Main and 
knew how to use their cannon without getting near enough to 
the Spaniards to suffer from their short-range weapons. When 
the Armada approached it was permitted by the English fleet 
to pass up the Channel before a strong wind, which later became 
a storm. The English ships then followed, and both fleets were 
driven past the coast of Flanders. Of the hundred and twenty 
Spanish ships only fifty-four returned home ; the rest had been 
destroyed by English valor or by the gale, to Which Elizabeth 
herself ascribed the victory. The defeat of the Armada put an 
end to the danger from Spain. 

582. Failure of Philip IPs Policy. When Philip II died, in 
1598, it was apparent that he had not succeeded in his cherished 
purposes. England was permanently Protestant; the "Invincible 
Armada" had been miserably wrecked, and Philip's plan for 
bringing England once more within the fold of the Roman 
Catholic Church was forever frustrated. In France the terrible 
wars of religion were over, and a powerful king, lately a Protes- 
tant himself, was on the throne, who not only tolerated the 
Protestants but chose one of them for his chief minister and would 
brook no more meddling of Spain in French affairs (§§ 569 ff.). 
A new Protestant state, the United Netherlands (Holland), had 
actually appeared within the bounds of the realm bequeathed to 



The Wars of Religion 343 

Philip by his father. In spite of its small size Holland was destined 
to play, from that time on, quite as important a part in European 
affairs as Spain, from whose control it had escaped. 

, Spain itself had suffered most of all from Philip's reign. His 
domestic policy and his expensive wars had sadly weakened the 
country. The income from across the sea was bound to decrease 
as the mines were exhausted. After Philip IPs death Spain sank 
to the rank of a secondary European power. 

V. The Thirty Years' War 

583. The Thirty Years' War really a Series of Wars. The 

last great conflict caused by the differences between Catholics 
and Protestants was fought out in Germany during the first half 
of the seventeenth century. It is generally known as the Thirty 
Years' War (161 8-1 648), but there was in reality a series of 
wars ; and although the fighting was done upon German ter- 
ritory, Sweden, France, and Spain played quite as important a 
part in the struggle as the various German states. 

584. Opening of the Thirty Years' War (i6is). Since the 
religious Peace of Augsburg, in 1555 (§539), the Protestants 
had increased in numbers, and the seizure of Church property 
by the Protestant princes had continued. Bohemia and even 
Austria contained many Protestants, and this was a source of 
terrible anxiety to the Hapsburg rulers and their efficient helpers, 
the Jesuits. Bohemia, in 16 18, determined to call a Calvinist 
prince from the Palatinate on the Pvhine to be their king. But the 
emperor was able to put the usurping ruler to flight after a reign 
of a single winter. 

This was regarded by the Protestants as a serious defeat, and 
the Protestant king of Denmark decided to intervene. He re- 
mained in Germany for four years, but was so badly beaten by 
the emperor's able general Wallenstein that he retired from the 
conflict in 1629. 

585. The Edict of Restitution (1629). The emperor was en- 
couraged by the successes of the Catholic armies in defeating 



344 General History of Europe 

the Bohemian and Danish Protestant armies to issue that same 
year an Edict of Restitution. In this he ordered the Protestants 
throughout Germany to give back all the Church possessions 
which they had seized since the religious Peace of Augsburg. 
Moreover, he decreed that only the Lutherans might hold re- 
ligious meetings; the other "sects/' including the Caivinists, 
were to be broken up. As Wallenstein was preparing to execute 
this decree in his usual merciless fashion the war took a new turn, 
owing to the intervention of Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden. 

586. The Kingdom of Sweden. We have had no occasion hith- 
erto to speak of the Scandinavian kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, 
and Denmark, which the northern German peoples had estab- 
lished about Charlemagne's time ; but from now on they begin 
to take part in the affairs of central Europe. The Union of Cal- 
mar (1397) had brought these three kingdoms, previously sep- 
arate, under a single ruler. About the time that the Protestant 
revolt began in Germany the union was broken by the withdrawal 
of Sweden, which became an independent kingdom. Gustavus 
Vasa, a Swedish noble, led the movement and was later chosen 
king of Sweden (1523). In the same year Protestantism was 
introduced. Vasa confiscated the Church lands, got the better of 
the nobles, — who had formerly made the kings a great deal 
of trouble, — and started Sweden on its way toward national 
greatness. 

587. Gustavus Adolphus invades Germany. Gustavus Adol- 
phus undoubtedly hoped by invading Germany not only to free his 
fellow Protestants from the oppression of the emperor and of the 
Catholic League but to gain a strip of German territory for Swe- 
den. Near Leipzig he met and routed the army of the League. 

At this juncture Wallenstein collected a new army, over which 
he was given absolute command. After some delay Gustavus met 
Wallenstein on the field of Llitzen, in November, 1632, where, 
after a fierce struggle, the Swedes gained the victory. But they 
lost their leader and Protestantism its hero, for the Swedish king 
ventured too far into the lines of the enemy and was surrounded 
and killed. 



The Wars of Religion 345 

The Swedes did not, however, retire from Germany, but con- 
tinued to participate in the war, which now degenerated into a 
series of raids by leaders whose soldiers depopulated the land 
by their unspeakable atrocities. Wallenstein, who had long been 
detested even by the Catholics, was deserted by his soldiers and 
murdered (in 1634), to 
the great relief of all 
parties. 

588. Richelieu re- 
news the Struggle of 
France against the 
Hapsburgs. At this mo- 
ment Richelieu (§ 572) 
decided that it would 
be to the interest of 
France to renew the old 
struggle with the Haps- 
burgs by sending troops 
against the emperor. 
France was still shut in, 
as she had. been since JP^ 
the time of Charles V, 

by the Hapsburg lands. 

So the war was renewed Portrait of Cardinal Richelieu. (From 

in 1635, and French, a Contemporaneous Painting) 

Swedish, Spanish, and 

German soldiers ravaged an already exhausted country for a decade 

longer. The dearth of provisions was so great that the armies had 

to move quickly from place to place in order to avoid starvation. 

589. Close of the Thirty Years' War (i64s). The participants 
in the war were now so numerous and their objects so various 
and conflicting that it is not strange that it required some years 
to arrange the conditions of peace, even after everyone was 
ready for it. For four years the representatives of the several 
powers worked upon the difficult problem of satisfying everyone, 
but at last the treaties of Westphalia were signed late in 1648. 




346 General History of Europe 

590. Provisions of the Treaties of Westphalia. The religious 
troubles in Germany were settled by extending the toleration of 
the Peace of Augsburg so as to include the Calvinists as well as 
the Lutherans. The Protestant princes were to retain the lands 
which they had in their possession in the year 1624, regardless 
of the Edict of Restitution, and each ruler was still to have the 
right to determine the religion of his state. The practical dissolu- 
tion of the Holy Roman Empire was acknowledged by permitting 
the individual states to make treaties among themselves and with 
foreign powers ; this was equivalent to recognizing the independ- 
ence which they had, as a matter of fact, already long enjoyed. 
While portions of northern Germany were ceded to Sweden, this 
territory did not cease to form nominally a part of the Empire, for 
Sweden was thereafter to have three votes in the German diet. 

The emperor also ceded to France three important towns — 
Metz, Verdun, and Toul — and all his rights in Alsace, although 
the city of Strassburg was to remain with the Empire. Lastly, 
the independence both of the United Netherlands and of Switzer- 
land was acknowledged. 

591. Disastrous Results of the War in Germany. The ac- 
counts of the misery and depopulation of Germany caused by the 
Thirty Years' War are well-nigh incredible. Thousands of vil- 
lages were wiped out altogether ; in some regions the population 
was reduced by one half, in others to a third, or even less, of 
what it had been at the opening of the conflict. The people were 
fearfully barbarized by privation and suffering and by the atroc- 
ities of the soldiers of all the various nations. Until the end of the 
eighteenth century Germany remained too impoverished to make 
any considerable contribution to the culture of Europe. 

Among the German rulers the hitherto rather unimportant elec- 
tors of Brandenburg, of the House of Hohenzollern, were just be- 
ginning to build up a power destined in our own days to cause 
untold disaster.. Hohenzollern rulers created the kingdom of 
Prussia in the eighteenth century, humbled both France and the 
Hapsburgs in the nineteenth, and finally so overreached themselves 
in the twentieth century that they lost their throne altogether. 



The Wars of Religion 347 

VI. The Beginnings of our Scientific Age 

592. The New Science. The battles of the Thirty Years' War 
are now well-nigh forgotten, and few people are interested in 
Wallenstein and Gustavus Adolphus. It seems as if the war did 
little but destroy men's lives and property, and that no great 
ends were accomplished by all the suffering it involved. But 
during the years that it raged certain men were quietly devoting 
themselves to scientific research which was to change the world 
more than all the battles that have ever been fought. These men 
adopted a new method. They perceived that the books of ancient 
writers, especially Aristotle, which were used as textbooks in the 
universities, were full of statements that could not be proved. 
They maintained that the only way to advance science was to set 
to work and try experiments, and by careful thought and investi- 
gation to determine the laws of nature without regard to what 
previous generations had believed. 

593. The Discovery of Copernicus. The Polish astronomer 
Copernicus published a work in 1543 in which he refuted the old 
idea that the sun and all the stars revolved around the earth as 
a center, as was then taught in all the universities. He showed 
that, on the contrary, the sun was the center about which the 
earth and the rest of the planets revolved, and that the reason that 
the stars seem to go around the earth each day is because our 
globe revolves on its axis. Although Copernicus had been en- 
couraged to write his book by a cardinal and had dedicated it to 
the Pope, the Catholic as well as the Protestant theologians de- 
clared that the new theory contradicted the teachings of the Bible, 
and they therefore rejected it. But we know now that Copernicus 
was right and the theologians and universities wrong. 

594. Galileo. The Italian scientist Galileo (1 564-1642), by 
the use of a little telescope he contrived, was able, in 1610, to see 
the spots on the sun ; these indicated that the sun was not, as 
Aristotle had taught, a perfect, unchanging body, and showed 
also that it revolved on its axis, as Copernicus had guessed that 
the earth did. Galileo made careful experiments by dropping 



348 



General History of Europe 



objects from the leaning tower of Pisa, which proved that Aristotle 
was wrong in assuming that a body weighing a hundred pounds 
fell a hundred times as fast as a body weighing but one. He 
wrote in Italian as well as in Latin. His opponents might have 




Galileo 



forgiven him had he written only for the learned, but they thought 
it highly dangerous to have the new ideas set forth in such a way 
that the people at large might come to doubt what the theologians 
and universities were teaching. Galileo was finally summoned be- 
fore the Inquisition ; some of his theories were condemned, and 
he was imprisoned by the Church authorities. 



The Wars of Religion 



349 



595. Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, Francis Bacon, an Eng- 
lish lawyer and government official, spent his spare hours in 
explaining how men could increase their knowledge. He too wrote 
in his native tongue as well as in Latin. He was the most eloquent 
representative of the new 
science which renounced 
authority and relied upon 
experiment. "We are the 
ancients," he declared, 
not those who lived long 
ago when the world was 
young and men ignorant. 
Late in life he began to 
write a little book, which 
he never finished, called 
the New Atlantis. It 
describes an imaginary 
state which some Euro- 
pean mariners were sup- 
posed to have discovered 
on an island in the Pa- 
cific Ocean. The chief 
institution was a " House 
of Solomon," a great 
laboratory for carrying 
on scientific investigation 
in the hope of discovering 
new facts and using them 
for bettering the condi- 
tion of the inhabitants. This House of Solomon became a model 
for the Royal Society, established in London some fifty years after 
Bacon's death. It still exists and publishes its proceedings. 

596. Scientific Societies Founded. The earliest societies for 
scientific research grew up in Italy. Later the English Royal 
Society and the French Institute were established, as well as 
similar associations in Germany. These were the first things of 




Lord Bacon 



350 General History of Europe 

the kind in the history of the world — except perhaps the ancient 
Museum at Alexandria (§ 170). Their object was not, like that 
of the old Greek schools of philosophy and the medieval universi- 
ties, mainly to hand down and explain the knowledge derived from 
the past, but to find out what had never been known before. 

We have seen how in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 
new inventions were made, such as the compass, paper, specta- 
cles, gunpowder, and, in the fifteenth century, the printing press. 
But in the seventeenth century progress began to be much more 
rapid, and an era of invention opened, in the midst of which we 
still live. The microscope and telescope made it possible to dis- 
cover innumerable scientific truths that were hidden from the 
Greeks and Romans. In time this scientific advance produced a 
spirit of reform, also new in the world. 

QUESTIONS 

I. What means did the Catholics take to reform the Church ? Give 
an account of the famous Council of Trent. What was accomplished 
by the Council? What is the Index? Describe the founding of the 
order of Jesuits. What were its aim and policy ? 

II. Describe the revolt of the Netherlands. What was the character 
of Philip II ? Give an account of the leadership of William of Orange. 
What was the origin of the Dutch Republic ? 

III. Describe the beginnings of Protestantism in France. Describe 
the struggle of the Huguenots with the Catholics. Describe the Mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew. What was the attitude of Henry IV toward 
the Protestants ? What were the provisions of the Edict of Nantes ? 

IV. What religious settlement was made by Queen Elizabeth ? De- 
scribe the characteristics of the Anglican Church. In what way did 
Mary Stuart threaten the power of Elizabeth? Describe the destruc- 
tion of the Armada. 

V. Give a brief account of the Thirty Years' War. Tell what you 
can of Richelieu. What were the provisions of the treaties of West- 
phalia? What were the results of the war on Germany? 

VI. What was the great discovery made by Copernicus ? What 
discoveries were made by Galileo? Why was the Church opposed to 
the teachings of these men? What do you know of Francis Bacon? 
Give an account of the founding of scientific societies. 



BOOK VII. THE SEVENTEENTH AND 
EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 

CHAPTER XXVIII 

STRUGGLE IN ENGLAND BETWEEN KING AND 
PARLIAMENT 

I. The Stuarts and the Divine Right of Kings 

597. Accession of James I of England (1603) ; the Stuarts. 
On the death of Elizabeth in 1603 James I ascended the throne. 
It will be remembered that he was the son of Mary Stuart, Queen 
of Scots, and through her he was a descendant of Henry VIIL In 
Scotland he reigned as James VI ; consequently the two king- 
doms were now brought together under the same ruler. 

The chief interest of the period of the Stuarts, which be- 
gan with the accession of James I and ended with the flight 
from England of his grandson, James II, eighty-five years later, 
is the long and bitter struggle between the Stuart kings and 
Parliament. The vital question was, Should the Stuart kings, 
who claimed to be God's representatives on earth, do as they 
thought fit, or should Parliament control them and the govern- 
ment of the country? 

598. James I loved to discuss the King's Claims. James I 
had a very irritating way of claiming to be the sole and supreme 
ruler of England. He wrote a book in which he asserted that the 
king could make any law he pleased without consulting Parlia- 
ment ; that he was the master of every one of his subjects, high 
and low, and might put to death whom he pleased. According 
to the theory of "the divine right of kings" which James held, 

35 1 



352 



General History of Europe 




it had pleased God to appoint the monarch the father of his 
people, who must obey him as they would God and ask no ques- 
tions. The king was responsible to God alone, to whom he owed 
his powers, not to Parliament or the nation. 

599. Great Writers of James's Reign — -Shakespeare, Bacon, 
Harvey. The writers of James's reign constituted its chief glory. 

They outshone those of any 
other European country. 
Shakespeare is generally ad- 
mitted to be the greatest 
dramatist that the world 
has produced. While he 
wrote many of his plays be- 
fore the death of Elizabeth, 
some of his finest — Othello, 
King Lear, and the Tem- 
pest, for example — belong 
to the time of James I. 

At the same time Francis 
Bacon (§ 595) was making 
his eloquent plea for modern 
science. It was in James's 
reign also that the English 
translation of the Bible was 
made which is still known 
and is still published as 
the authorized version in all countries where English is spoken. 
An English physician of this period, William Harvey, examined 
the workings of the human body more carefully than any previous 
investigator and made the great discovery of the manner in which 
the blood circulates from the heart through the arteries and 
capillaries and back through the veins — a matter which had 
previously been entirely misunderstood. 

600. Charles I (1625-1649) and his Struggle with Parliament. 
Charles I, James's son and successor, did nothing to remove the dis- 
agreeable impressions of his father's reign and began immediately 





James 



Struggle in England between King and Parliament 353 



to quarrel with Parliament. When that body refused to grant 
him funds, — mainly because they thought that these were likely 
to be wasted by his favorite, the duke of Buckingham, — Charles 
attempted, without the permission of 
Parliament, to raise money in irreg- 
ular ways, such as forcing loans from 
his subjects and imprisoning those 
who protested. 

These and other attacks upon the 
rights of his people led Parliament 
to draw up, in 1628, the celebrated 
Petition of Right, which is one of the 
most important documents in the his- 
tory of the English Constitution. 
Parliament "humbly prayed" that no 
man need thereafter be forced to 
make any gift or loan to the king 
without consent of Parliament ; that 
no free man should be imprisoned 
except according to the laws and 
statutes of the realm as presented in 
the Great Charter (§377). Very re- 
luctantly Charles consented to this 
restatement of the limitations which 
the English had always, in theory at 
least, placed upon the powers of their 
king. 

The disagreement between Charles 
and Parliament was rendered much 
more serious by religious differences. 
The king had married a French 
Catholic princess, and the Catholic cause seemed to be gaining on 
the Continent. There was evidently a growing inclination in Eng- 
land to restore the older ceremonies of the Church which had 
prevailed before the Protestant Revolt and which shocked the more 
strongly Protestant members of the House of Commons. 




Charles I of England 

This portrait is by one of the 

greatest painters of the time, 

Anthony Van Dyck, 1599-1641 

(see cut on page 355) 



354 General History of Europe 

601. Charles dissolves Parliament (1629) and determines to 
rule by himself. This fear of a return to Roman Catholicism 
served to widen the breach between Charles and the Commons. 
The Parliament, of 1629, after a stormy session, was dissolved by 
the king, who determined to rule thereafter by himself. For eleven 
years no new Parliament was summoned. 

Charles was not well fitted by nature to run the government 
of England by himself. He had not the necessary tireless energy. 
Moreover, the methods resorted to by his ministers to raise money 
without recourse to Parliament rendered the king more and more 
unpopular and prepared the way for the triumphant return of 
Parliament. 

602. The Different Sects of Protestants — High Church and 
Low Church. In 1633 Charles made William Laud archbishop of 
Canterbury. The new archbishop ruled that every clergyman 
who obstinately refused to conform to the services of the State 
Church should be brought before the king's special Court of 
High Commission to be tried and, if convicted, to be deprived 
of his position. 

Laud's conduct was no doubt gratifying to the High Church 
party among the Protestants ; that is, those who still clung to 
some of the ancient practices of the Roman Church, although 
they rejected the doctrine of the Mass and refused to regard 
the Pope as their head. The Low Church party, or Puritans, 
on the contrary, regarded Laud and his policy with aversion. 
While they did not urge the abolition of the bishops, they disliked 
all "superstitious usages," as they called the wearing of the sur- 
plice by the clergy, the use of the sign of the cross at baptism, the 
kneeling posture in partaking of the communion, and so forth. 

603. The Independents. Moreover, there was an ever-increasing 
number of Separatists, or Independents. These rejected both the 
organization of the Church of England and that of the Presby- 
terians and desired that each religious community should or- 
ganize itself independently. The government had forbidden these 
Separatists to hold their little meetings, which they called con- 
venticles, and about 1600 some of them fled to Holland. 



Struggle in England between King and Parliament 355 

604. The Pilgrim Fathers. The community of them which 
established itself at Leyden dispatched the Mayflower, in 1620, 
with colonists — since known as the Pilgrim Fathers — to the New 
World across the sea. It was these colonists who laid the founda- 
tions of a New England which has proved a worthy offspring of 




Children of Charles I 

This very interesting picture, by the Flemish artist Van Dyck, was painted 
in 1637. The boy with his hand on the dog's head was destined to become 
Charles II of England. Next on the left is the prince, who was later 
James II. The girl to the extreme left, the Princess Mary, married the 
governor of the United Netherlands, and her son became William III of 
England in 1688. The two princesses on the right died in childhood 



the mother country. The form of worship which they established 
in their new home is still known as Congregational. 

605. The Long Parliament. In 1640 Charles found himself 
engaged in a war with Scotland, which, as we have seen (§ 575), 
had become Presbyterian and refused to be forced to accept the 
Anglican form of worship. The army which the king got to- 
gether was reluctant to fight the Scots, so Charles was at last 



356 General History of Europe 

obliged to summon a Parliament. This, owing to the length of 
time it remained in session, was called the Long Parliament. 

The Long Parliament began by imprisoning Archbishop Laud 
in the Tower of London. It declared him guilty of treason, 
and he was executed in 1645 m s pite of Charles's efforts to save 
him. Parliament drew up a "Grand Remonstrance" in which 
all of Charles's errors were enumerated and a demand was made 
that the king's ministers should thereafter be responsible to 
Parliament. 

606. The Beginning of Civil War (1642); Cavaliers and 
Roundheads. Matters grew rapidly worse, and both Charles and 
Parliament now began to gather troops for the inevitable conflict, 
which plunged England into civil war. Those who supported 
Charles were called Cavaliers. They included not only most of 
the aristocracy and the Catholic party but also a number of mem- 
bers of the House of Commons who were fearful lest Presby- 
terianism should succeed in doing away with the English Church. 
The parliamentary party was popularly known as the Round- 
heads, since some of them cropped their hair close because of 
their dislike for the long locks of their more aristocratic and 
worldly opponents. The Cavaliers in turn scorned the Round- 
heads as a set of hypocrites, on account of their solemn ways and 
for liking to go to meeting and singing psalms instead of trying to 
have a good time. 

607. Oliver Cromwell ; Defeat of Charles's Armies at 
Marston Moor and Naseby. The Roundheads soon found a dis- 
tinguished leader in Oliver Cromwell (b. 1599), a country gentle- 
man and member of Parliament, who was later to become the 
most powerful ruler of his time. Cromwell organized a compact 
army of God-fearing men, who were not permitted to indulge in 
profane words or light talk, as is the wont of soldiers, but 
advanced upon their enemies singing psalms. The king enjoyed 
the support of northern England and also looked for help from 
Ireland, where the royal and Catholic causes were popular. 

The war continued for several years and, after the first year, 
went in general against the Cavaliers. Finally, the king, defeated 



Struggle in England between King and Parliament 357 

on every side, put himself in the hands of the Scotch army which 
had come to the aid of Parliament (1646), and the Scotch soon 
turned him over to Parliament. During the next two years 
Charles was held in captivity. 

608. Pride's Purge. There were, however, many in the House 
of Commons who still sided with the king, and in December, 1648, 
that body declared for a reconciliation with the monarch, whom 
they had safely imprisoned in the Isle of Wight. The next day 
Colonel Pride, representing the army, — which constituted a party 
in itself and was opposed to all negotiations between the king and 
the Commons, — stood at the door of the House with a troop of 
soldiers and excluded all the members who were known to take 
the side of the king. This outrageous act is known in history 
as "Pride's Purge." 

609. Execution of Charles (1649). In this way the House of 
Commons was brought completely under the control of those 
most bitterly hostile to the king, whom they immediately pro- 
posed to bring to trial. They declared that the House of Com- 
mons, since it was chosen by the people, was supreme in England 
and the source of all just power, and that consequently neither 
king nor House of Lords was necessary. The mutilated House of 
Commons appointed a special High Court of Justice made up of 
Charles's sternest opponents, who alone would consent to sit 
in judgment on him. They passed sentence upon the king and on 
January 30, 1649, Charles was beheaded in front of his palace of 
Whitehall, London. It must be clear from the above account that 
it was not the nation at large which demanded Charles's death, 
but a very small group of extremists who claimed to be the repre- 
sentatives of the nation. 

II. Oliver Cromwell; England a Commonwealth 

610. England becomes a Commonwealth, or Republic. The 

"Rump Parliament," as the remnant of the House of Commons 
was contemptuously called, proclaimed England to be thereafter 
a "commonwealth"; that is, a republic, without a king or House 



358 



General History of Europe 



of Lords. But Cromwell, the head of the army, was nevertheless 
the real ruler of England. He was supported by the Independ- 
ents, but his main strength lay in his skill as an administrator and 
in the well-organized army of some fifty thousand men which he 

had at his command. 
611. Ireland and 
Scotland Subdued. 
Cromwell found him- 
self confronted by 
every kind of difficulty. 
The three kingdoms 
had fallen apart. The 
nobles and Catholics 
in Ireland proclaimed 
Charles II as king, 
and an army of Irish 
Catholics and English 
royalist Protestants 
was formed with a 
view of overthrowing 
the Commonwealth. 
Cromwell accordingly 
set out for Ireland, 
where town after town 
surrendered to his 
army. In 1652, after 
much cruelty, the island was once more conquered. A large part of 
it was confiscated for the benefit of the English, and the Catholic 
landowners were driven into the mountains. In the meantime 
Charles II, who after his father's execution had taken refuge in 
France, had in 1650 landed in Scotland, and upon his agreeing 
to be a Presbyterian king the whole Scotch nation was ready to 
support him. But Scotland was subdued by Cromwell even more 
promptly than Ireland had been. So completely was the Scottish 
army destroyed that Cromwell found no need to draw the sword 
again in the British Isles. 




Oliver Cromwell 

This portrait is by Peter Lely and was 
painted in 1653 



Struggle in England between King and Parliament 359 

612. Cromwell dissolves the Long Parliament (i653) and is 
made Lord Protector. Cromwell failed, however, to get along 
with Parliament much better than Charles I had done. The 
Rump Parliament had become very unpopular, for its members, 
in spite of their boasted piety, accepted bribes and were zealous 
in the promotion of their relatives in the public service. At 
last Cromwell upbraided them angrily for their injustice and 
self-interest, which were injuring the public cause. On being 
interrupted by a member, he cried out, "Come, come, we have 
had enough of this. I'll put an end to this. It's not fit that 
you should sit here any longer," and calling in his soldiers 
he turned the members out of the House and sent them home. 
Having thus made an end of the Long Parliament (April, 1653), 
he summoned a Parliament of his own, made up of "God- 
fearing" men whom he and the officers of his army chose. This 
extraordinary body is known as Barebone's Parliament, from a 
distinguished member, a London merchant, with the charac- 
teristically Puritan name of Praisegod Barebone. Many of these 
godly men were, however, unpractical and hard to deal with. 
A minority of the more sensible ones got up early one winter 
morning (December, 1653) and, before their opponents had a 
chance to protest, declared Parliament dissolved and placed the 
supreme authority in the hands of Cromwell. 

613. The Protector's Foreign Policy. For nearly five years 
Cromwell was, as Lord Protector, — a title equivalent to that of 
Regent, — practically king of England, although he refused ac- 
tually to accept the royal insignia. He did not succeed in per- 
manently organizing the government at home, but he showed 
remarkable ability in his foreign negotiations. He promptly formed 
an alliance with France, and English troops aided the French in 
winning a .great victory over Spain. England gained thereby 
Dunkirk and the West Indian island of Jamaica. 

614. Cromweirs Death. In May, 1658, Cromwell fell ill and 
died, and as a great storm passed over England at that time, the 
Cavaliers asserted that the devil had come to fetch home the 
soul of the usurper. 



360 General History of Europe 

III. The Restoration 

615. The Restoration; Charles II (1660-1685). After Crom- 
well's death his son Richard, who succeeded him, found himself 
unable to carry on the government. He soon abdicated, and the 
remnants of the Long Parliament met once more. But that body 
soon peacefully disbanded of its own accord. The nation was glad 
to acknowledge Charles II, whom everyone preferred to a govern- 
ment by soldiers. A new Parliament, composed of both houses, 
was assembled, which welcomed a messenger from the king and 
solemnly resolved that "according to the ancient and funda- 
mental laws of this kingdom, the government is, and ought to be, 
by king, lords, and commons." Thus the Puritan revolution and 
the short-lived republic were followed by the Restoration of the 
Stuarts. 

Charles II was quite as fond as his father of having his own 
way, but he was a man of more ability. He disliked to be ruled 
by Parliament, but, unlike his father, he was too wise to arouse 
the nation against him. He did not propose to let anything 
happen which would send him on his travels again. He and his 
courtiers led a gay life in sharp contrast to the Puritan ideas. 

616. Religious Measures adopted by Parliament. Charles's 
first Parliament was a moderate body, but his second was made 
up almost wholly of Cavaliers, and it got along, on the whole, so 
well with the king that he did not dissolve it for eighteen years. 
It did not take up the old question, which was still unsettled, as 
to whether Parliament or the king was really supreme. It showed 
its hostility, however, to the Puritans by a series of intolerant 
laws, which are very important in English history. An effort was 
made to exclude Presbyterians and Independents from town 
offices. By the Act of Uniformity (1662) any clergyman who 
refused to accept everything in the Book of Common Prayer was 
to be excluded from holding his benefice. That many disagreed 
with the Anglican Church is shown by the fact that two thousand 
clergymen thereupon resigned their positions for conscience' sake. 

These laws tended to throw all those Protestants who refused 



Struggle in England between King and Parliament 361 

to conform to the Church of England into a single class, still 
known today as Dissenters. It included the Independents, the 
Presbyterians, and the newer bodies of the Baptists and the So- 
ciety of Friends (commonly known as Quakers). These sects 
had no desire to control the religion or politics of the country and 
asked only that they might be permitted to worship in their own 
way outside of the English Church. 

617. Toleration Favored by the King ; Opposed by Parlia- 
ment. The king, in spite of his dissolute habits, was inclined to 
be tolerant toward differences in religious beliefs and had secret 
leanings toward Catholicism. But his efforts to secure religious 
liberty for Catholics and Dissenters only aroused Parliament to 
pass harsher measures, for fear the king might once more restore 
"popery" in the realm. The law excluding all but adherents of 
the English Church from office remained in force down into the 
nineteenth century. 

618. War with Holland. Charles II, who was earnestly de- 
sirous of increasing English commerce and of founding new 
colonies, renewed a struggle with the Dutch which had begun 
under Cromwell. This war aimed to destroy Holland's shipping 
and thereby increase the trade of England. The two nations 
were very evenly matched on the sea, but in 1664 the English 
seized some of the West Indian Islands from the Dutch. And 
what was of much greater importance, the English captured the 
Dutch settlement on Manhattan Island, which was renamed 
New York in honor of the king's brother, the Duke of York. 
In 1667 a treaty was signed by England and Holland which 
confirmed these conquests. 

IV. The Revolution of 1688 

619. James II ( 1685-1688). Upon Charles II 's death he was 
succeeded by his brother, James II, who was an avowed Catho- 
lic and had married, as his second wife, Mary of Modena, who 
was also a Catholic. He was a far more religious man than the 
late king and was ready to reestablish Catholicism in England 



362 General History of Europe 

regardless of what it might cost him. Mary, James's daughter by 
his first wife, had married her cousin, William III, Prince of 
Orange, 1 the head of the United Netherlands, as Holland was 
called. The English nation might have tolerated James so long 
as they could look forward to the accession of his Protestant 
daughter. But when a son was born to his Catholic second wife, 
and James showed unmistakably his purpose of favoring the 
Catholics, messengers were dispatched by a group of Protestants 
to William of Orange, asking him to come and rule over them. 

620. The Revolution of 1688 and the Accession of Wil- 
liam III ( 1688-1702 ). William landed in November, 1688, and 
marched upon London, where he received general support from 
all the English Protestants, regardless of party. James II started 
to oppose William, but his army refused to fight and his courtiers 
deserted him. James fled to France, and a new Parliament 
declared the throne vacant. 

621. The Bill of Rights (i689). A Bill of Rights was then 
drawn up, appointing William and Mary joint sovereigns. The 
Bill of Rights, which is an important monument in English con- 
stitutional history, once more stated the fundamental rights of the 
English nation and the limitations which the Petition of Right 
and the Great Charter of King John had placed upon the king 
(§§ 377? 600). By this peaceful revolution the English rid them- 
selves of the Stuarts and their claims to rule by divine right, the 
powers of Parliament were once more established, and the Catholic 
question was practically settled by the dethroning of a king who 
openly favored the rule of the Pope. 

The Toleration Act was passed by Parliament, which freed 
Dissenters from all penalties for failing to attend services in 
Anglican churches and allowed them to have their own meetings. 
Even Catholics, while not included in the act of toleration, were 
permitted to hold services undisturbed by the government. 

1 Son of Charles I's daughter, Mary, who had married William, Prince of Orange. 



Struggle in England between King and Parliament 363 

V. England after the Revolution of 1688 

622. Questions settled by the Accession of William and 
Mary. With the accession of William and Mary, in 1688, Eng- 
land may be said to have practically settled the two great ques- 
tions that had produced such serious dissensions during the 
previous fifty years. In the first place, the nation had clearly 
shown that it proposed to remain Protestant, and the relations 
between the Church of England and the Dissenters were gradu- 
ally being satisfactorily adjusted. In the second place, the powers 
of the king had been carefully defined, and from the opening 
of the eighteenth century to the present time no English monarch 
has ventured to veto an act of Parliament. 1 

623. The Union of England and Scotland (1707). William III 
was succeeded in 1702 by his sister-in-law, Anne, a younger 
daughter of James II. Far more important than the War of the 
Spanish Succession, which her generals carried on against Louis 
XIV, was the final union of England and Scotland. The two 
countries had been under the same ruler since the accession of 
James I, but each had maintained its own independent parlia- 
ment and system of government. Finally, in 1707, both nations 
agreed to unite their governments into one. Forty-five members 
of the British House of Commons were to be chosen thereafter in 
Scotland, and sixteen Scotch lords were to be added to the Eng- 
lish House of Lords. In this way the whole island of Great 
Britain was placed under a single government, and the occasions 
for strife were thereby greatly reduced. 

624. Accession of George I (1714-1727) of Hanover. Since 
none of Anne's children survived her, she was succeeded, accord- 
ing to an arrangement made before her accession, by the nearest 
Protestant heir. This was the son of James I's granddaughter 
Sophia. She had married the elector of Hanover 2 ; consequently 

1 The last instance in which an English ruler vetoed a measure passed by Parliament 
was in 1707. 

2 Originally there had been seven electors, but the duke of Bavaria had been made 
an elector during the Thirty Years' War, and in 1692 the father of George I had been 
permitted to assume the title of " elector of Hanover." 



304 



General History of Europe 



the new king of England, George I, 1 was also elector of Hanover 
and a member of the Holy Roman Empire. 2 

625. England and the "Balance of Power." William of 
Orange had been a continental statesman before he became king 
of England, and his chief aim had always been to prevent France 
from becoming overpower ful. He joined in the long War of the 
Spanish Succession (1702-17 13) in order to maintain the "bal- 
ance of power" between the various European countries. During 
the eighteenth century England, for the same reason, continued to 
take some part in the struggles between the continental powers, 
although she had no expectation of extending her sway across the 
Channel. The wars which she waged in order to increase her own 
power and territory were carried on in distant parts of the world 
and more often on sea than on land. 



1 English monarchs from James I to George III : 

James I (1603-1625) 



Charles I Elizabeth, m. Frederick V 

(1625-1649) elector of the 

Palatinate 
(Winter King 
of Bohemia) 

Charles II (1) Anne Hyde, m. James II, m. (2) Mary of Modena Sophia, m. Ernest 



(1660-1685) 



(1685-1688) 



William III, m. Mary Anne 

(168S-1702) (1688-1694) (1702-1714) 
Prince of Orange 



James (the 
Old Pretender) 



Charles Edward 
(the Young Pre- 
tender) 



Augustus 
elector of 
Hanover 



George I 
(1714-1727) 

I 

George II 

(1727-1760) 

I 

Frederick 

Prince of Wales 

(d.1751) 

George III 

(1760-1820) 



2 The troubles with the Stuarts were not entirely over. The son and the grandson of 
James II — the Old and the Young Pretender — lived in France and engaged in ineffective 
conspiracies to regain the throne. In 1745 tne Young Pretender landed in Scotland, 
where he found support among the Highland chiefs, and even Edinburgh welcomed 
" Prince Charlie." With an army of six thousand men he marched into England, but 
was speedily forced back into Scotland and disastrously defeated and was glad to reach 
France once more in safety. 



Struggle in England between King and Parliament 365 

QUESTIONS 

I. What is the chief interest of the period of the Stuart kings ? How 
were the kingdoms of England and Scotland united on the accession 
of James I? What were the views of kingship held by James? Name 
some of the distinguished writers of James's reign. What was Charles's 
attitude toward Parliament? What was the Petition of Right? What 
were the chief religious parties in England in the time of Charles I? 
Describe the events which led to the execution of Charles. 

II. What form of government was introduced after Charles's death ? 
How did Cromwell deal with Parliament? In what did Cromwell's 
strength consist? 

III. What led to the restoration of the Stuarts? What was 
Charles II's attitude toward religious differences? What laws were 
passed by Parliament against the Puritans ? Who were the Dissenters ? 

IV. Why was James II unpopular? What was the Revolution of 
1688? What was the substance of the Bill of Rights? of the Tolera- 
tion Act? 

V. What questions were settled by the accession of William and 
Mary? On what terms were England and Scotland united in 1707? 
Explain how a member of the House of Hanover came to the English 
throne. What is meant by the "balance of power"? 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The following list is confined to the most useful and readily obtainable books 
which should be found in any good public library. It will also serve as a guide 
in the selection of volumes for a high-school library. The teacher may con- 
sult the much fuller and more detailed classification of material given in 
Breasted, Ancient Times, and in Robinson, Medieval and Modern Times. 

BOOK I. THE ANCIENT WORLD 

Primitive Man. Sollas, Ancient Hunters (second edition). Tylor, Prim- 
itive Culture. Hoernes, Primitive Mun. Myres, The Dawn of History, 
chaps, i-ii, vii-xi, an excellent little book in which only the traditional Baby- 
lonian chronology needs revision. Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury), 
Prehistoric Times. Osborn, Men of the Old Stone Age, a very valuable and 
sumptuously illustrated presentation of Early Stone Age life. Breasted, 
Ancient Times, chap. i. 

Egypt. Breasted, History of Egypt and History of the Ancient Egyptians. 
Hall, The Ancient History of the Near East, chaps, ii-iv, vi-viii. Breasted, 
Ancient Times, chaps, ii-iii. Maspero, Art in Egypt. Breasted, The Develop- 
ment of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt. Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt. 

Source Material and Maps. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt. Petrie, 
Egyptian Tales. Maspero, Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt. Breasted-Huth, 
Ancient History Maps (Denoyer-Geppert Co., Chicago, 111.), Maps Bi and B3; 
Teacher's Manual (accompanying these maps), pp. 13-19, 33 - 4°- 

Babylonia and Assyria. King, History of Sumer and Akkadaxid History of 
Babylonia. Goodspeed, History of the Babylonians and Assyrians. Recent 
discoveries have greatly altered the chronology. Hall, The Ancient History 
of the Near East, chaps, v, x, xii. Rogers, A History of Babylonia and Assyria. 
Breasted, Ancient Times, chaps, iv-v. Jastrow, Civilization of the Babylo- 
nians and Assyrians. Sayce, Babylonian and Assyrian Life and Customs. 

Source Material and Maps. R. F. Harper (Ed.), Assyrian and Babylonian 
Literature. Botsford, A Source Book of Ancient History. Sayce (Ed.), Records 
of the Past. Breasted-Huth, Ancient History Maps, Maps B2 and B3 ; Teacher's 
Manual, pp. 40-45. 

Persia and the Hebrews. There is no good modern history of Persia in Eng- 
lish based on the sources, but see Benjamin, Story of Persia (Story of the 
Nations Series). Meyer, "Persia," in Encyclopedia Britannica. Breasted, 
gi i 



ii General History of Europe 

Ancient Times, chaps, vi-viii. Hall, The Ancient History of the Near East, 
chaps, ix, xii. George Adam Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 
the most valuable of the many books on Palestine, but a little advanced for 
high-school pupils. Henry Preserved Smith, Old Testament History. Cor- 
NILL, History of the People of Israel. Kent, Histo7y of the Hebrew People and 
History of the Jewish People. MACALISTER, A History of Civilization in Pales- 
tine (Cambridge Manuals). Jackson, Persia, Past and Present. This valuable 
book is the best introduction to the subject of Persia as a whole. Hilprecht, 
Recent Research in Bible Lands. 

Source Material and Maps. The Avesta will be found in the series called 
Sacred Books of the East. The Old Testament in the Revised Version. 
G. F. Moore, The Literature of the Old Testament. Botsford, A Source Book 
of Ancient History. Breasted-Huth, Ancient History Maps, Maps B2 and B4 ; 
Teacher's Manual, pp. 37-50. 

BOOK II. THE GREEKS 

JEgean Civilization and the Greeks before the Persian Wars. Botsford, 

Hellenic History, chaps, i-ix. Westermann, Ancient Nations, pp. 43-50, 
chaps, vii-x. Goodspeed, Ancient World. Breasted, Ancient Times, chaps, viii- 
xii. Myres, Dawn of History, chaps, viii-ix. Reinach, Story of Art, pp. 26-32. 
Hawes, Crete the Forerunner of Greece. Baikie, Sea Kings of Crete. Hogarth, 
The Ancient East. Mosso, Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization. Hall, Ancient 
History of the Near East, pp. 31-72. Zimmern, Greek Commonwealth (second 
edition). Greenidge, Greek Constitutional History. Capps, Homer to Theoc- 
ritus. Keller, Homeric Life. Seymour, Homeric Age. Sandys, Compa?iion 
to Greek Studies. Mahaffy, Social Life in Greece. 

Source Material and Maps. Botsford, Source Book of Ancient History. 
Thallon, Readings in Greek History. Botsford and Sihler, Hellenic Civili- 
zation. Herodotus. Breasted-Huth, Ancient History Maps, Maps B3, B5, 
B6, B7, and B8 ; Teacher's Manual, pp. 17-24, 48-61. 

The Persian Wars and the Age of Pericles. Botsford, Hellenic History. 
Westermann, Ancient Nations, chaps, xi-xvii. Goodspeed, Ancient World. 
Breasted, Ancient Times, chaps, xiii-xviii. Abbott, Pericles. Hall, Near East. 
chap. xii. Grundy, Great Persian War. Seignobos, Ancient "Civilization. 
Grant, Greece in the Age of Pericles. Zimmern, Greek Commotiwealth. Sandys, 
Companion. Tarbell, History of Greek Art. Munroe, History of Education. 
Ferguson, Greek Imperialism. 

Source Material and Maps. Botsford and Sihler, Hellenic Civilization. 
Fling, Source Book of Greek History. Herodotus (especially Bk. vii). Plu- 
tarch's Lives of Theseus, Solon, Aristides, Themistocles, Pausanias, Cimon, 
Lycurgus, Alcibiades, Nicias. sEschylus' Persians. Thucydides (Jowett), 
Xenophori's Anabasis and Economics (Dakyn). Plato's Apology. Selections from 

Gl 



Bibliography iii 

Euripides in Appleton, Greek Poets, and in Goldwin Smith, Specimens of 
Greek Tragedy. Aristophanes' 1 Achai'nians and Birds (Frere in Everyman's). 
Breasted-Huth, Ancient History Maps, Maps B6, B7, B8, and B9 ; Teacher's 
Manual, pp. 61-64, 65-69 (Map A), 69-70 (Map B), and 70-72 (Map C). 

Alexander and the Hellenistic Age. Botsford, Hellenic History. Wes- 
TERMANN, Ancient Nations, chaps, xix-xxii. GOODSPEED, Ancient World. 
Breasted, Ancient Times, chaps, xix-xxi. Bury, Greece, chaps, xvi-xviii. 
Hogarth, Ancient East, pp. 186-251. Ferguson, Greek Imperialism. Capps, 
Homer to Theocritus. Curteis, Alacedonian E?npire. Wheeler, Alexander. 
Gardner, Nezv Chapters in Greek History, chap. xv. Shuckburgh, Greek 
History. Greenidge, Greek Constitutional History, chap. vii. Mahaffy, 
Greek Life and Thoitght, chaps, i-xvi ; Alexander's Empire, chaps, xiv, xx, and 
xxiii. Monroe, History of Education, pp. 73-78. Tucker, Life in Ancient 
Athens, chap. ix. Tarbell, Greek Art, chap. x. 

Source Material and Maps. Botsford and Sihler, Hellenic Civilization. 
Botsford, Source Book, chaps, xxiv— xxvii. Plutarch'' s Lives of Demosthenes, 
Phocion, Alexander. Demosthenes'' Crown and Third. Philippic. Thallon, 
Readings, chap. xv. Fling, Source Book, Polybius* Histories (Shuckburgh). 
Breasted-Huth, Ancient History Maps, Map Bio; Teacher's Manual^ 
pp. 74-79. 

BOOK III. THE ROMANS 

The Roman Republic to the Time of Augustus. Botsford, History of 
Pome, chaps, i-viii. Westermann, Ancient Nations, chaps, xxiii-xxxiv. Good- 
speed, Ancient World. Breasted, Ancient Times, chaps, xxii-xxvi. Bryant, 
Short History of Rome. Fowler, Rome. Mosso, Dawn of Civilization. Jones, 
Companion to Roman History. Heitland, Short History of the Roman Repub- 
lic. How and Leigh, History of Rome. Abbott, Roman Political Institutions. 
Frank, Roman Imperialism. Greenidge, Roman Public Life. Smith, Car- 
thage and the Carthaginians. Morris, Hannibal. Davis, I?ifluetice of Wealth 
in Imperial Rome. Duff, Literary History of Rome. Fowler, Ccesar. 
Strachan-Davidson, Cicero. 

Source Material and Maps. Botsford, Story of Rome and. Source Book. 
Munro, Source Book. Plutarch' 's Lives of Romulics, Nitma, Pyrrhus, Camillus. 
D avis, Source Readings, Vol. III. Ccesar's, Gallic War. Sallusfsfugurthine War. 
Breasted-Huth, Ancient History Maps, Maps Bn, B12, B13 (A), B14 (A-D), 
B14 (E); Teacher's Manual, pp. 13-17, 25-32, 80-96, 97-100, 106-109, 109-122. 

The Roman Empire and its Decline. Botsford, History of Rome. Wester- 
mann, Ancient Nations. Goodspeed, Ancient World. Breasted, Ancient 
Times, chaps, xxvii-xxix. Fowler, Rome. Capes, Early Empire. Jones, 
Roman Empire. Bury, Students' Roman Empire, chaps, i-xii. Abbott, Roman 
Political Institutions, chap. xii. Davis, Influence of Wealth. Firth, Augustus. 

Gl 



iv General History of Europe 

Fowler, History of Roman Literature, Bk. II. Mackail, Roman Literature, 
Bk. II. Tucker, Life in the Roman World. Arnold, Roman Provincial 
Administration. REINACH, Story of Art, pp. 75-83. Pellison, Roman Life in 
Pliny's Time. Mau and Kelsey, Pompei. Tucker, Roman Life, chaps, i-iii, 
xix-xxi. Hardy, Studies in Roman History, Series I. Cumont, Oriental Reli- 
gions in^. Roman Paganism. Glover, Conflict of Religions in the Roman Empire. 
Oman, Byzantine Empire. Cotterill, Mediceval Italy, pp. 21-54. Firth, Con- 
stantine. DlLL, Roman Society in the Last Century of the Roman Empire. 

Source Material and Maps. Botsford, Story of Rome; Source Book. Mun- 
ROE, Source Book. Davis, Source Readings. Laing, Masterpieces of Latin 
Literature (selections). The Deeds of Augustus (Fairley's translation in the 
Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints, Vol. V, No. 1). Suetonius' Lives of 
the Ccesars (selections). Tacitus' Annals, XV, 38-45, 60-65. Letters of Pliny 
(Firth). New Testament (The Acts of the Apostles). Robinson, Readings 
in European History, Vol. I, pp. 14-27. The Notitia Dignitatum {Translations 
and Reprints, University of Pennsylvania). Breasted-Huth, Ancient History 
Maps, B13 (B), B16 (insert) ; Teacher's Manual, pp. 100-104, 123-128, 128-130. 



BOOK IV. THE MIDDLE AGES 

The Barbarian Invasions. The best short accounts of the barbarian inva- 
sions are Emerton, Introduction to the Middle Ages, chaps, i-vii, and Thorndike, 
History of Medieval Europe, chaps, iii and v. Oman, The Dark Ages, gives a 
somewhat fuller narrative of the events. Adams, G. B., Civilization during 
the Middle Ages, chaps, i, ii, iv, and v, discusses the general conditions and 
results. Hodgkin, the author of an extensive work in eight volumes on Italy 
and her Invaders, has written two small works, Dynasty of Theodosius and 
Theodoric the Goth. Sergeant, The Pranks. Every historical student should 
gain some acquaintance with the celebrated historian Gibbon. Although his 
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was written about a century and a half 
ago, it is still of great interest and is incomparable in its style. The best edi- 
tion is published by The Macmillan Company. The Cambridge Mediceval His- 
tory, by various writers, devotes its first volume to the period in question. 

The textbook and the collateral reading should always be supplemented by 
examples of contemporaneous material. Robinson, Readings in European His- 
tory, Vol. I (from the barbarian invasions to the opening of the sixteenth cen- 
tury) and Vol. II. (from the opening of the sixteenth century to the early 
twentieth century), arranged to accompany chapter by chapter Robinson's 
Introduction to the History of Western Europe, will be found especially useful 
in furnishing extracts which reenforce the narrative together with extensive 
bibliographies and topical references. 

For extracts relating to the barbarian invasions, see Robinson, Readings, 
Vol. I, pp. 28-55 ; Ogg, A Source Book of Mediceval History, chaps, i-iv. Much 

Gl 



Bibliography v 

more extensive are the extracts given in Hayes, C. H., An Introduction to the 
Sources relating to the Germanic Invasions, 1909 (Columbia University Studies 
in History, Economics, and Public Law, Vol. XXXIII, No. 3). See also 
Thatcher and McNeal, A Source Book for •■ Medieval History. 

Constant use should be made of good historical atlases. By far the best and 
most convenient for the high school is Shepherd, Wm. R., Historical Atlas, 
191 1 (see maps 43, 45, 48, 50-52). Dow, Earl E., Atlas of European History, 
1907, also furnishes clear maps of the chief changes. 

An admirable syllabus, guide, and exhaustive bibliography for the study of 
the Middle Ages may be found in Paetow, A Guide to the Study of Mediceval 
History, 19 1 7. 

Rise Of the Papacy ; the Monks. Thorndike, History of Medieval Europe, 
chap, vi, ix-x. Flick, The Rise of the Mediceval Church. Walker, The History 
of the Christian Church. Church histories are usually written by either Catho- 
lics or Protestants, who naturally differ in their interpretation of events. One 
may refer to Fisher, History of the Christian Church (Protestant), or Alzog, 
Manual of Universal Church History (Catholic). Milman, History of latin 
Christianity. Cambridge Mediceval History, Vol. I, chaps, iv, vi. Newman, 
Manual of Church History, Vol. I (Protestant). Workman, Evolution of the 
Monastic Ideal. Taylor, Henry O., Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages, 
admirable chapter on Monasticism. Harnack, Monaslicism. Cambridge 
Medieval History, Vol. II, chap. xvi. 

Source Material. Robinson, Readings, Vol. I, pp. 14-27, and chaps, iv- 
v. Much fuller, Ayer, J. C, A Source Book of Ancient Church History and Life 
of St. Columban in Translations and Reprints, University of Pennsylvania, 
Vol. II, No. 7. 

The chief portions of the Benedictine Rule in Henderson, E. F., Select 
Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, and in Thatcher and McNeal, A 
Source Book for Medieval History. Translation by Brehaut of Gregory of 
Tours, History of the Franks. See map, pp. 46-47, in Shepherd, Historical 
Atlas, showing spread of Christianity in Europe. 

Mohammed and his Followers. For Mohammed and the Saracens, see 
Thatcher and Schwill, Europe in the Middle Age, chap. xv. Gilman, The 
Saracens. Gibbon has a famous chapter on Mohammed and another- on the 
conquests of the Arabs. These are the fiftieth and fifty-first of his great work. 
Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. II, chaps, x-xii. MuiR, Life of Mohammed. 
Ameer Ali, The Life and Teachings of Mohammed, a Short History of the 
Saracens, by one who sympathizes with them. It is not hard to find a copy of 
one of the English translations of the Koran. See brief extracts in Robinson, 
Readings, and in Ogg, Source Book of Medieval History, pp. 97 ff. Stanley 
Lane- Poole, Speeches and Table Talk of Mohammed, is very interesting. 

Charlemagne and the Age of Disorder. Emerton, Introduction to the Mid- 
dle Ages, chaps, xii-xv. Thorndike, History of Medieval Europe, chaps, xi-xiv. 

Gl 



vi General History of Europe 

Bryce, Holy Roman Empire, chaps, iv-v. Henderson, History of Germany 
in the Middle Ages, chaps, iv-v. Oman, Dark Ages, chaps, xix-xxv. Adams, 
G. B., Civilization during the Middle Ages. Hodgkin, Charles the Great, a 
small volume. Mombert, A History of Charles the Great, the most extensive 
treatment in English. Cambridge Mediceval Histoiy, Vol. II, chaps, xviii-xx. 

Seignobos, Feudal Regime (excellent). See "Feudalism," in Encyclopcedia 
Britannica, nth ed. Ingram, History of Slavery and Serfdom, especially 
chaps, iv-v. Cheyney, Industrial and Social History of Engla?id. Munro and 
SELLERY, Mediceval Civilization, pp. 159-212. 

Source Material. Robinson, Readings, chaps, vii-ix. Ogg, Source Book of 
Mediceval History, chap. x. Thatcher and McNeal, A Source Book for 
Mediceval History, pp. 341-417. 

England in the Middle Ages. There are a number of convenient general 
histories of England during the Middle Ages which can be used to supplement 
the short account here given: Cheyney, Short History of England; Green, 
Short History of the English People; Cross, A. L., A History of England and 
Greater Britain, chaps, iv-xviii ; Andrews, Charles M., History of England; 
Terry, History of England; and a number of others. For France, Adams, 
G. B., Growth of the French Nation ; Duruy, History of France ; and a more 
recent treatment by Davis, W. S., The History of France. 

Source Material. Robinson, Readings, chaps, xi, xx. There are several 
source books of English history: Cheyney, Readings in English History, 
chaps, iv-xii ; Colby, Selections from the Sources of English History ; Lee, 
Source Book of English History; Kendall, Source Book of English History. 

Popes and Emperors. Emerton, Mediceval Europe, chaps, iii-x. Henderson, 
E. F., History of Germany in the Middle Ages. Thorndike, History of Medi- 
eval Europe, chap. xv. Davis, H. W. C, Medieval Europe, chaps, v-vii. 
Bryce, Holy Roman Empire, chaps, viii-xi. 

Source Material. Robinson, Readings, Vol. I, chaps, xii-xiv. Thatcher 
and McNeal, A Source Book for Mediceval History, Section III, pp. 132-259. 
Excellent maps for the period will be found in Shepherd, Historical Atlas. 

The Crusades. Emerton, Mediceval Europe, chap. xi. Tout, The Empire 
and the Papacy, chaps, vii, viii, xiii, xiv, xix. Thorndike, History of Medieval 
Europe, chap. xvi. Davis, Medieval Europe, chap. viii. Munro and Sellery, 
Mediceval Civilization, pp. 240-276. Adams, Civilization during the Middle 
Ages, chap, xi, for discussion of general results. Archer and Kingsford, 
The Crusades. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chaps, lviii-lix. 
See " Crusades," in Encyclopcedia Britannica, nth ed. 

Source Material. Robinson, Readings, chap. xv. Thatcher and McNeal, 
A Source Book for Mediceval History, Section IX, pp. 510-544. Translations and 
Reprints, published by the Department of History of the University of Penn- 
sylvania, Vol. I, Nos. 2, 4, and Vol. Ill, No. 1. 

Gl 



Bibliography v ij 

The Medieval Church; Heresy and the Friars. Emerton, Medieval Eu- 
rope, chap. xvi. The works of Flick and Walker referred to above are useful 
brief treatments. Special topics can be looked up in the Encyclopedia Britan- 
n'ica, the Catholic Encyclopedia, or any other good encyclopedia. Cutts, 
Parish Priests and their People. Lea, A Histoiy of the Inquisition of the 
Middle Ages, contains chapters upon the origin of both the Franciscan and 
Dominican orders. For St. Francis the best work is Sabatier, St. Francis of 
Assist. See also Gasquet, English Monastic Life ; Jessopp, The Coming of the 
Friars, and Other Historic Essays; CREIGHTON, History of the Papacy, 
introductory chapter. 

Source Material. Robinson, Readings, Vol. I, chaps, xvi, xvii, xxi. 
Thatcher and McNeal, A Source Book for Medieval History, contains many 
important documents relating to the Church. 

BOOK V. CIVILIZATION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 

Town Life in the Middle Ages. Emerton, Medieval Europe, chap. xv. 
Davis, Medieval Europe, chap. ix. Thorndike, History of Medieval Europe, 
chaps, xvii-xix, xxxi-xxxii. Hulme, Renaissance and Reformation. Emerton, 
The Beginnings of Modern Europe, chaps, iv-v, ix-x. 

Gibbins, History of Commerce, best short account with good maps. Cunning- 
ham, Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects, Vol. II. Cheyney, Indus- 
trial and Social History of England. Gibbins, Indtistrial History of England. 
Day, C, History of Commerce. Luchaire, Social Life in the Time of Philip 
Augustus. Symonds, Age of Despots, gives a charming account of town life 
in Italy in its more picturesque aspects. Hamlin, History of Architecture, good 
introduction. Good account of early discoveries in Cambridge Modem History, 
Vol. I, chaps, i-ii. 

Source Material. Robinson, Readings, Vol. I, chap, xviii. Ogg, A Source 
Book of Medieval History, chap. xx. Thatcher and McNeal, A Source Book 
for Medieval History. Section X, pp. 545-612, gives many interesting docu- 
ments. Marco Polo's account of his travels is easily had in English. The best 
edition of Travels of Sirfohn Mandeville is that published by The Macmillan 
Company. 

Medieval Books and Science. Emerton, Medieval Europe, chap. xiii. 
Thorndike, History of Medieval Europe, chaps, xx-xxii. Munro and Sellery, 
Medieval Civilization, pp. 277-357, 458-490. Hulme, Renaissance and Refor- 
mation. Rashdall, History of the Universities in the Middle Ages, introductory 
chapters. 

The best treatment of medieval intellectual history is Taylor, H. O., The 
Medieval Mind (2 vols). Saintsbury, Flourishing of Romance, a good 
introduction to medieval literature. Walsh, The Thirteenth, the Greatest of 
Centuries (rather too enthusiastic in its claims). Smith, Justin H., The 



Gl 



viii General History of Europe 

Troubadours at Home. Cornish, Chivalry. DeVinne, Invention of Printing. 
Putnam, Books and their Makers during the Middle Ages. Burckhardt, The 
Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. Van Dyck, The History of Painting. 

Source Material. Robinson, Readings, Vol. I, chap. xix. Steele, Mediae- 
val Lore, extracts from an encyclopedia of the thirteenth century. The Song 
of Roland is translated into spirited English verse by O'Hagan. The reader 
will find a beautiful example of a French romance of the twelfth century in 
an English translation of Aucassin and Nicolette. Mr. Steele gives charming 
stories of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Huon of Bordeaux, Renaud 
of Montauban, and The Story of Alexander. Malory, Mort d Arthur, a col- 
lection of the stories of the Round Table made in the fifteenth century for 
English readers, is the best place to turn for these famous stories. Robinson 
and Rolfe, Petrarch (new enlarged edition, 19 14), a collection of his most 
interesting letters. Whitcomb, Literary Source Book of the Italiaft Renaissance. 
Coulter, Medieval Garner, a collection of selections from the literary sources. 



BOOK VI. THE PROTESTANT REVOLT AND THE WARS 

OF RELIGION 

Europe at the Opening of the Sixteenth Century. Hayes, C. J. H., Politi- 
cal and Social History of Modern Europe, Vol. I, chaps, i, in (excellent brief 
account). Johnson, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, chaps, i-ii. Cambridge 
Modern History, Vol. I, chaps, iv, xi. See " Charles V," in Encyclopedia Britan- 
nica. Duruy, History of France, Ninth and Tenth Periods. 

Cambridge Modern History, Vol. II, chap. ii. Dyer and Hassall, Modern 
Europe (a political history of Europe in 6 vols.), Vol. I. Creighton, History 
of the Papacy. Pastor, History of the Popes, Vol. V. Bryce, Holy Roman 
Empire, chap. xiv. 

Source Material. Robinson, Readings,. Vol. II, chap, xxiii. 

The Protestant Revolt in Germany. Hayes, Modem Europe, Vol. I, 
chap. iv. Henderson, E. F., Short History of Germany. Johnson, Europe in 
the Sixteenth Century, chaps, iii-v. A good recent discussion of the period is 
contained in Hulme, Renaissance and Reformation. Lindsay, History of the 
Reformation, Vol. I. See " Reformation," in Encyclopedia Britannica, nth ed. 

McGiffert, Martin Luther. Beard, Martin Luther, especially introductory 
chapters on general conditions. Creighton, History of the Papacy, Vol. VI. 
Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I, chaps, ix, xix, and Vol. II, chaps, iv-viii. 
Janssen, History of the German People, Vols. I-II. Emerton, Desiderius Eras- 
mus, very interesting. Smith, Preserved, The Life and Letters of Martin 
Luther: Bohmer, Luther in the Light of Recent Research. 

Source Material. Robinson, Readings, Vol. I, chap, xxi, and Vol. II, 
chaps, xxiv-xxvi. Wace and Buchheim (Editors), Luther's Primary Works 

Gl 



Bibliography ix 

and The Augsburg Confession. Whitcomb, Source Book of the German Renais- 
sance. Hazlitt, Luther's Table Talk. Smith, Preserved, Luther'' s Corre- 
spondence and Other Contemporary Letters. 

Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England. Johnson, Europe in the 
Sixteenth Century, pp. 272 ff. See " Zwingli " and " Calvin," in Encyclopedia 
Britannica. Chapters on the changes under Henry VIII and Edward VI will 
be found in all general histories of England ; for example, Pollard, A. F., 
Histoiy of England (Home University Library), chap, iv ; Cheyney, Short 
History of England, chap, xii ; Cross, A History of England, chaps, xx-xxii ; 
Green, Short Histoiy of the English People, chaps, vi-vii. 

Cambridge Modern Histoiy, Vol. II, chaps, x-xi, xiii-xv. Jackson, S. M., 
Huldreich Zwingli. Lindsay, History of the Reformation, Vol. II, Bk. Ill, 
chaps, i-iii, and Bk. IV. Gasquet, The Eve of the Reformation. Pollard, 
Henry VIII \ and, -by the same, History of England from the Accession of 
Edward VI to the Death of Elizabeth, two admirable works by one of the most 
stimulating of modern English historians. 

Source Material. Robinson, Readings, chap, xxvii. Gee and Hardy, 
Documents Illustrative of English Church History, pp. 145 ff., very useful and 
full. Cheyney, Readings in English History, chap. xii. 

The Wars of Religion. Johnson, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, chaps, 
vii-ix. Hayes, Modern Europe, Vol. I, chaps, v-vi (excellent). Wakeman, 
European History, 1598-17/3, chaps, i-v. The portion of the chapter dealing 
with English affairs can be readily supplemented by means of the general 
histories of England, Cheyney, Cross, Green, Gardiner, Terry, etc. 

Cambridge Modern History, Vol. II, chaps, ix, xvi, xviii-xix ; Vol. Ill, chaps, 
i, vi-x, xv, xx ; Vol. IV, chaps, i, iii-vi, xiii-xiv. Lindsay, History of the Refor- 
mation, Vol. II, Bk. Ill, chaps, iv-v, and Bk. VI. Putnam, Ruth, William 
the Silent. Payne, Voyages of Elizabethan Seamen to America, Vol. I. Motley, 
Rise of the Dutch Republic. GlNDELY, History of the Thirty Years' War. 

Source Material. Robinson, Readings, Vol. II, chaps. xxviii,xxix. Cheyney, 
Readings in English History, chap. xiii. 

BOOK VII. THE SEVENTEENTH AND EARLY 
EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 

England in the Seventeenth Century. Pollard, History of England, chap. v. 
Cheyney, Short History of England, chaps, xiv-xvi. Hayes, Modern Europe, 
Vol. I, chap. viii. Cross, A History of England, chaps, xxvii-xxxv. Green, 
Short History of the English People, chaps, viii-ix. Gardiner, Students' Histoiy 
of England, Pts. VI-VIII. Cambridge Modern History, Vol. Ill, chap, xvii ; 
Vol. IV, chaps, viii-xi, xv, xix ; Vol. V, chaps, v, ix-xi. Morley, Oliver Crom- 
zvell. Macaulay, Essay on Milton. Gardiner, The First Tivo Stuarts and 
the Puritan Revolution. Pease, The Leveller Movement. 

Gl 



x General History of Europe 

Source Material. Robinson, Readings, chap. xxx. Cheyney, Readings in 
English History, chaps, xiv-xvi. Lee, Source Book of English History, Pt. VI. 
Colby, Selections from the Sources of English History, Pt. VI, the Stuart Period. 
Gee and Hardy, Documents Illustrative of English Church History, pp. 508-664. 



Gl 



INDEX 



Marked letters sound as in ask, far, her, there, move, orb, full; French bon, menu; 
K like German ch in ich, ach 



Abbeys, dissolution of, in England, 

3 2 4 

Abraham, 43 

Academy, 79; of Plato, 112 

A crop'o lis, 56, 74 

Act of Supremacy, 323, 339 

Act of Uniformity, 360 

Actium (ak'shi urn), 152 

Address to the German Nobility, by 
Luther, 311 f. 

Ad'ri an o'ple, battle of, 182 

^Egean World, civilization of, 48 ff. ; 
peoples of, 49 ; and the Orient, 52 f., 
70 ff. ; invaded by the Greek bar- 
barians, 56 

^Egina (e ji'na), 74 

^Egospotami (e gos pot'a mi), 89 

^Eneid (e ne'id), 157 

M o'li ans, 55 

^schylus (es'ki lus), 84 

Af'ri ca, 161 

Agincourt (Eng. pron. aj'in court), 
285 

Ah'ri man, 37 

Ahuramazda (a ho'ra maz'da), 37 

Ak'kad, 193 

Al'a ric, 182 

Albertus Magnus, 247, 272 

Al bi gen'sians, 244 f. 

Al'che my, 243 n., 270 

Al ci bl'a des, 88 f . 

Alemanni (al e man'!), 188 

Alexander the Great, 102 ff. 

Alexandria, 106, 108 f., 161 

Alexius, Emperor, 237 

Algebra, 194, 243 n. 

Al ham'bra, 194 

Alphabet. See Writing 

Alsace (al sas"), 346 

Alva, duke of, 331 f., 340 f. 

America, discovery of, 298 ; Spanish 
possessions in, 299, 303 

A'mon, 105 

gi xi 



Amos, 43 

A nab' a sis, 92 

Andrea del Sarto (an dre'a del sar'to), 

295 
Angles in Britain, 183, 202, 279 f. 
Anglo-Saxon language, 265 
Anjou (Eng. pron. an'jo), 233, 287 
Anne, queen of England, 363 
An tig'o nus, 106 
Antioch (an'ti ok), 106, 239, 240 
Antiochus (an tTo kus) the Great, 137 
An'to ny, 151 f. 
A pol'lo, 67 
A pol 15 do'rus, 95 
A qui'nas, Thomas, 198, 247, 272 
Ar'a bic numerals, 243 n., 274 
Ar'abs, 25, 191 ; conquests of, 193, 

237 ; civilization of, 193, 243 ; in 

Spain, 193 {., 302 
Aragon, 302 f. 
Ar be'la, 104 

Archimedes (ar ki me'dez), 109 
Architecture, earliest, in stone, 45; 

medieval, 210, 230, 243; Gothic, 

260 
Ar'gos, 52, 66, 74 
Aristarchus (ar is tar'kus), no 
Ar is toph'a nes, 95 
Aristotle, 99, 102, 112, 347; medie- 
val veneration for, 269, 271 f. ; 

Luther's attitude toward, 310, 312 
Arma'da, 334, 342 
Art in the Stone Age, 4 f. See 

Greek art and architecture, Roman 
„ art and architecture, Renaissance 
Ar te mis'ium, 73 
Arthur, King, 266 
Aryans (ar'yanz), 36 
Asia, Western, 24 ff. 
Assur (as'or), 29 
Assyrian civilization, 29 f. 
Assyrian Empire, 29 ff . ; conquest of 

Israel by, 44 



XIV 



General History of Europe 



Diirer, Albrecht, 296 

Dutch, origin of, 333. See Holland 

Dutch language, 265 

East Frankish kingdom, 207, 216 

East Goths, 184, 186, 197 

Edict of Restitution, 343 f., 346 

Education, 190, 205, 224, 243, 257 f., 
270 ff., 329 

Edward the Confessor, 228 f. 

Edward I, 279 ff. 

Edward II, 280 ff. 

Edward III, 282 ff. 

Edward VI, 324 f., 339 

Egypt, physical aspect of, 10; long 
history of ancient, 10 f.; civiliza- 
tion of, 14 ff.; the Empire, 20 ff.; 
conquerors of, 22, 29, 38, 152, 193, 

243 
Egyptian writing, 1 1 f . 

Election of German emperors, 304 f. 

Elizabeth, Queen, 338 ff. 

England, in the Middle Ages, 229 ff., 
279 ff., 286 ff.; peasant revolt in 
(1381), 284; and France, 285; 
under Elizabeth, 334, 338 ff. ; and 
Spain, 334, 342 ; and Ireland and 
Scotland, 341, 351, 363 ; under the 
Stuarts, 351 ff- See Angles in Britain, 
Church, Irish question, Parliament, 
Saxons 

English language, 265 

Epaminondas, 92 

Ep i cu re'ans, 113 

Erasmus, 198, 309 

Er a tos'the nes, no 

Estates General, 258, 286 

Etruscans, 117, 123, 125 

Euripides, 85, 96 

Excommunication, 214, 224, 234, 312, 
340 

Ferdinand of Aragon, 300, 303 

Ferdinand I, Emperor, 331 

Fertile Crescent, 25, 36, 40, 103, 159, 

162, 175 
Feudal system. See Feudalism 
Feudalism, 211 ff.; warfare under, 

213 ; involving the Church, 217 f., 

248 ; in England, 229, 235, 248, 280 ; 

in France, 233, 248, 287 
Fiefs, medieval, 211, 228 
Fla min'i us, 132 
Flanders, 228 
Florence, 289, 291 ff. 



Forum, Roman, 119, 1 54 f., 164 

Fra Angelico, 198 

France in Middle Ages, 283, 287. See 

Franks 
Francis I of France, 302, 307, 309, 

3 l6 > 334 
Franciscans, 198, 246 
Franks, 186; conquests of, 186 f., 

204, 240; kingdom of, 187 
Frederick I (Barbarossa), Emperor, 

221 
Frederick II, Emperor, 221 
Frederick the Wise, 310 
French language, 148, 265 f., 320 
Friars, Preaching, 245, 247 
Friends, Society of, 361 

Gaelic, 280 

Ga le'ri us, 178 

Gascony, 188 

Gaul, 147 f. 

Gauls, 124 f., 161 

Genoa (jen'o a), 289 

Geographical discoveries, 296 ff. 

Geography, early science of, no 

Geometry, no 

George I, 363 f. 

German language, 207, 265 

German peoples, 35 

Germans, early, 146, 158, 173, 175, 
182 ff., 202 ; civilization of, 181, 188; 
fusion of, with the Romans, 188 f. 

Germany, in the sixteenth century, 
304 ; religious division of, 308 f ., 
316 ff. See Austria, German Em- 
pire, Holy Roman Empire 

Ghent (gent), 255, 257 

Ghetto (get'o), 256 

Ghiberti (ge ber'te), 295 n. 

Gizeh (ge'ze), Great Pyramid of, 16 

Gladiators, 141 

Glass, earliest, 18 f. 

God, belief in one, 46 

Godfrey of Bouillon (bo yon'), 239 

Gospels, 169 

Gothic architecture and sculpture, 
260 ff. 

Goths, 182 f. 

Government, earliest on a large scale, 

45 
Gracchi (grak'I), 145 
Grammar, 194 
Gra na'da, 194, 206, 303 
Grand Remonstrance, 356 
Gra ni'cus, 103 

Gl 



Index 



xv 



" Great Greece," 63 

Great King, 39 

" Great Schism," 226 

Greek art and architecture, 78 ff., 93 f. 

Greek city-state, 56, 66, 68, 91, 95, 99 

Greek civilization, in the Age of 
Kings, 56 ff. ; in the Age of Nobles, 
66 ; in the Age of Tyrants, 66 ; in 
the Athenian Empire, 78, 93, 100, 
107, 117 ; in Asia, 105 

Greek colonization, 62 f., 106 

Greek commerce, 63 f., 106 

Greek drama, 84, 96 

Greek education, 79 f. 

Greek gods, 61 f., 114 

Greek history writing, 98 

Greek industries, 63 

Greek language, 56, 67, 108 f., 120, 
141, 272 f. 

Greek literature, 59 ff., 67, 81 f., 85, 
93, 98 f. ; influence of, 140 f. 

Greek oratory, 10 1 

Greek religion and philosophy, 67., 

9S'f-» TI 3 
Greek science, 66, 81, 99, 109 
Greek sea power, 64, 72 ff., 88, 92, 

106. See Hellenistic Age 
Greek theater, 84 f. 
Greek wars, 70 ff., 77 
Greek wealth, 65, 93, 106 
Greeks, 35, 49, 54 ff., 91 f . ; allied 

with the Romans, 125 ; subjugation 

of, 138 
Gregory VII, 218 ff. 
Gregory the Great, 197 f., 202 
Guienne (ge en 7 ), 233 f., 283 
Guilds, 253 

Guise (gez), House of, 335, 340 
Gunpowder, 275, 301, 350 
Gustavus Adolphus, 344 

Ha'dri an, 159 f. 

Hamburg, 255 

Ham mu r'a'pi, 28 f. 

" Hanging Gardens," 34 

Hannibal, 131 

Hanseatic League, 257 

Hapsburgs, 304 ff., 336, 345 

Harvey, 352 

Hastings, 228 

Hawkins, 342 

Hebrew kingdoms, 41 ff. 

Hebrew literature and religion, 40, 

43.45 
Hebrew writing, 43 

Gl 



Hebrews, 25, 40 ff. ; restoration of the, 
44 f. 

He ji'ra, the, 191 

Hellas, 67 

Hellenes (hel'enz), 67 

Hellenistic Age, 10 1 ff. 

Hel'les pont, 70, 75 

Henry II of England, 232 f., 271, 537 

Henry V of England, 285 

Henry VIII of England, 302, 309, 322 ff. 

Henry II of France, 335 

Henry IV of France, 336 f. 

Henry IV of Germany, 220 

Heraldry, 243 

Heresy, 243 ff., 303 ; of Luther, 313 ; 
punishment of, 334 

Hero songs of Greece, 59 

He rod'o tus, 81, 98 

Hieroglyphics, 12 

Hildebrand. See Gregory VII 

Hippocrates (hi pok'ra tez), 84, 85 

Historic Period, 8 

History, earliest writer of, 42 ; sum- 
mary of ancient, 179; medieval 
ignorance of, 268 ; sources of, after 
1500, 278 

Hittites (hit'lts), 30, 53 

Hohenstaufens (ho'enshtou'fenz), 221 

Holbein (horbln), 296 

Holland, 306, 328, 342, 346, 361. See 
Republic (Dutch) 

Holy Roman Empire, 216 f., 221 f., 
305 ; dissolution of, 346 

Homage, 211 

H5'mer, 53, 59, 141 

Hor'ace, 156, 200 

Horse, first appearance of the, 17 

Hos'pi tal ers, 240 

Hrolf. See Rollo 

Huguenots (hu'ge nots), 335 f. 

Humanists, 273 

Hundred Years' War, 283 ff. 

Hungarians, 209, 216 

Huns, 182 f. 

Ikh na'ton, 22 

Il'i ad, 59 

Imperator, 153 

Index of prohibited books, 328 

India, 36 

Indo-European languages, 36 

Indo-Europeans, 35 f., 54, 116 

Indulgences, 311 

Ingelheim, 205 n. 

Innocent III, 234, 244, 246 



XVI 



General History of Europe 



Inquisition, 245, 303, 348 

Institute, French, 349 

Institute of Christianity, The, by Cal- 
vin, 321, 334 

Interdict, 224 f., 234 

Interest, 28, 65, 255 f. 

Intolerance, examples of, 244, 318,334, 
341, 348, 361 

Inventions, 274 f., 350 

I o'ni ans, 55, 71 

Irish question, the, 341 

Iron, 30, 53 

Isaac, 43 

Isabella, queen of Castile, 303 

Isaiah (I za/ya), 44 

Tsis, 168 

Is'larn, 191 

I soc'ra tes, 99, ior 

Israel, 42 

Is'sus, 103 

Italian cities, and the Orient, 242 f. 
of the Renaissance, 289 ff., 300 f. 

Italian despots, 291 

Italians, n6f., 161 

Italy, early, 63 ; geography and cli- 
mate of, 116; and the revived Ro- 
man Empire, 207, 216, 221 f . ; and 
the Orient, 254 ; during the Renais- 
sance, 289 ff. ; a battleground for 
Europe, 300 f . See Rome 

Jacob, 43 

James I, 280 

James II, 351, 361 f. 

James VI of Scotland (I of England), 
340 f., 351 f. 

Je ho'vah, 42 

Jerusalem, city of, 34, 41, 44; con- 
quests of, 237, 239, 241 f. ; kingdom 
of, 240 

Jesuits, 198, 329 ff. 

Jesus, 168 

Jewish State, 45 

Jews, 168, 256, 303 

Joan of Arc, 285 

Joanna the Insane, 306 

John of England, 234 f. 

John II of France, 283 

Joseph, 43 

Judah, 42, 44 

Julian, "the Apostate, 177 

Julius Caesar, 147 ff. 

Jury, trial by, 68, 76, 232, 235 

Jus tin'i an Code, 186 

Ju've nal, 167 



Karnak, 20 
Khafre, 20 
King, " by the grace of God," 205 ; 

position of, in feudalism, 213 f . ; 

in England, 234, 236; in France, 

2 35 
Kingship, origin of Greek, 56 
" Kneeling " Parliament, 326 
Knighthood, 267 f. 
Knights of the Round Table, 266 
Knox, John, 339 
Koran, 191 f. 

Lake-dwellers, Swiss, 6 f., 319 
Lancaster, House of, 286 
Land, ownership of, 122, 171, 208, 
211, 217, 232 ft., 249; "inclosures" 

of, 338 

Lateran, 294 

Latin kingdoms in Syria, 240 

Latin language, 148, 207, 223, 264, 
348 ; dialects of, 207 

Latins, 118, 124 

Latium, 118 

Laud, William, 354, 356 

Law, earliest written codes of, 28, 122, 
160, 186, 189; English common, 
232 ; study of, 271 

Learning, medieval, 268 ff. 

Leo the Great, 183, 197 

Leo III, 207 

Leo X, 302, 309 

Leonardo da Vinci, 295 

Leonidas, 73 

Libraries, in Rome, 167 ; destruction 
of, 190, 200 

Library, of Assurbanipal, 30 ; at Alex- 
andria, in f . ; first private Roman, 
141 

Livy, 1 57 

Llewellyn, 279 

Lombards, 186, 197 

Lombardy conquered by Charle- 
magne, 186 

Lord, medieval, 211 

Lords, House of, 28 

Lorenzo the Magnificent, 275, 292, 

3°9 
Louis XIV, 363 
Low Church party, 354 
Loyola, Ignatius, 198, 329 
Liibeck, 255, 257 
Luther, Martin, 198, 307, 3ioff. 
Lutheran revolt, 314ft . 
Liitzen, 344 

GI 



Index 



xvn 



Lyceum, 79 
Lydia, 38, 40 
Lysander, 89 

Macedonia, 99, 101 ff. ; conquered by 

Rome, 137 
Magellan, 298 

Magnesia (magne'sha), 137 
Maine, France, 233, 287 
Man, prehistoric, 1 ff. 
Manor, medieval, 248 f. 
Mar'athon, 71 
Marco Polo, 296 
Ma'rius, 145 f. 
Marseilles (marsalz'), 63 
Marston Moor, battle of, 356 
Mary of Burgundy, 306 
Mary Queen of Scots, 341 
Mary Tudor, 324 f. 
Massilia (masil'ea) (Marseilles), 63 
Mathematics, 45, 194 
Matilda, 233 
Max i mil'i an, 304, 306 
Mayence Psalter, 277 
Mayor of the Palace, 204 
M'az'da, 37 
Mecca (mek'a), 191 
Medes (medz), 33, 37 
Medici (med'e che), 292 
Medicine, 45, 81 
Medina (made'na), 191 
Mediterranean world, 53, 106, H4ff.; 
failure of the Greeks in the western, 
125; Romans in the, 135 f-, 138, 

i43> J 49> l S 2 > J 54, 163 
Melanchthon (me langk'thon), 317 

Memphis, 16 

Mendicant orders, 245 f. 

Mer o vin'gi an line, 188, 204 n. 

Mer'sen, Treaty of, 207 

Messina, 130 

Metals, 8, 13 f., 28, 48, 53- 2o8 5 P ew " 
ter, 338 

Metz, 346 

Michael Angelo (ml'kel an'je lo), 295 

Middle Ages, 190; instruction dur- 
ing, 224, 271 f. ; warfare in, 283, 
285 

Milan', 289 

Miller, Hugh, 249 

Mil ti'a des, 7 1 

Mines, 63, 208, 303 

Minnesingers, 268 

Mith'ras, 37, 168 

Modena (m6'da na), Mary of, 361 f. 

Gl 



Modern languages, 264 ff. 

Moham'med, 191 

Mohammedan conquests, 209, 241, 
302 

Mohammedans, 191 ff., 206, 302 f. 

Mommsen, 171 

Monarchs, English, 364 n. 

Monasteries, 201, 324 

Monasticism, 198; vows of, 199 f. 

Money, lack of, 208, 249; replaces 
barter, 250; grants of, to the gov- 
ernment, 281 f., 287. See Interest 

Monks, 198, 201, 246 f., 324, 330; 
contribution of, to civilization, 
200 f. 

Mon'te Cassino (kas se'no), 199 

Moors. See Mohammedans 

Moses, 40, 43 n. 

Moslems. See Mohammedans 

Mosques, 192 f. 

Museum, the, 109, 350 

Naples, kingdom of, 221, 289, 300 
Nase'by, 356 

Navarre (navar'), 302, 335 
Nebuchadnezzar, (neb u kad nez'ar), 

33> 44 
Ne'ro, 157 
Netherlands, revolt of the, 331 ff. 

See Belgium, Holland, Republic 

(Dutch) 
Neustria, 188 
New Atlantis, 349 
New Testament, 169 
New York, 361 
Nic 5 me'di a, 176 
Nile, 10, 20 
Nimwegen, 205 n. 
Nineveh (nin'e ve), 30, 33, 104 
Norman Conquest, 228 f. 
Normandy, 228, 233, 285 
Norway, 344 

Norwegian language, 265 
Nov'go rod, 257 

Octa'vian, 151 ff- 

O doa'cer, 183, 197 

Od'ys sey, 61 

Old Testament, 43, 45 

Oligarchies, Greek, 91 

Olympic games, 66 f., 79 

Olym'pus, 54 

Orange, House of. See William of 

Orange 
Ordeal, trial by, 189 



XV111 



General History of Europe 



Orient, achievements of, 8, 45 ; lack 
of freedom in, 46 ; influence of, on 
the Mediterranean world, 57, 114, 
168, 193 f. ; Europe and, 242, 254, 
290, 296. See Crusades 

Orleans (or'la ail), Maid of, 285 

Ostracism, 68 

Ostrogoths. See East Goths 

Otto the Great, 216 f. 

Ov'id, 200 

Oxford, University of, 271 

Painting, 295 f. 

Palestine, 25,40, 56, 147, 237 

Pan'the on, 165 

Papacy, origin of, 195 ; revenues of, 

308 f., 323 ; revolts against, 314, 323. 

See Pope 
Papal possessions, 289 
Paper and paper-making, 13, 243 n., 

276 f., 350 
Papy'rus, 13 
Parchment, 276 
Paris, University of, 271 
Parliament, English, 351 ff., 363. See 

Commons, Lords 
Par'the non, 84 
Par'thians, 159, 173, 175 
Patricians, 121 
Paul of Tarsus, 168 
Pavia (pave'a), 206 
Peasants, revolt of, in England, 284 ; 

in Germany, 315 
Pel o pon ne'si an wars, 86 
Peloponnesus, 55 
Per'i cles, 77, 86 

Per i pa tet'ic School of Aristotle, 113 
Persecutions, 256, 303, 323, 326, 334f., 

34i 

Persia, empire of, 35 ff., 104 ; wars of, 
37 f. ; civilization of, 40 ; invasions 
of Europe by, 70 ff. ; rise of new, 
175; crushed by Moslems, 193 

Perspective, discovery of, 95 

Peter, St., regarded as the first bishop 
of Rome, 195 f. 

Peter the Hermit, 238 

Peterborough, 249 

Petition of Right, 353, 362 

Petrarch, 272 

Pharaoh (fa'ro), 20, 22 

Phar sa'lus, 149 

Phid'i as, 84, 94 

Philip Augustus of France, 233, 242 

Philip of Macedon, 101, 124 



Philip II of Spain, 326, 331 f., 340 ff. 

Phil ip'pi, 151 

Philippics, 1 01 

Philistines (fi lis'tinz), 56 

Phoenicia (fe nish'a), 17, 104 

Phoenicians, 26, 40, 57 

Pilgrim Fathers, 355 

Pin'dar, 102 

Pippin, 204 f. 

PI rae'us, 77, 89 

Pirates, 257, 299 

Pisa, .289 

Pi sis'tra tus, 68 

Pitt, the younger, 418 

Pizarro, 299, 303 

Plantagenets (plan taj'e netz), 232 f., 

283 
Pla tae'a, 74 
Plato, 97 f . ; the ideal state described 

by, 99 
Plautus, 140 
Plebs, 121 
Plin'y, 167 
Plutarch's Lives, 167 
Poland, 206 

Political parties in England, 354 
Pompeii (pom pa/ye), 166 
Pompey (pom'pi), 147 f. 
Pope, the temporal power of, 195; 

origin of title of, 197 ; election of, 

218; claims of, 219, 234; position 

of, 223 ff., 308 f. 
Portcullis, 210 
Portugal, 302 

Portuguese discoveries, 297 
Portuguese language, 265 
Postal systems, earliest, 161 
Pottery, earliest, 6, 18 f. 
Praetor (pre'tor), 122 
Praise of Folly, by Erasmus, 309 
Prax it'e les, 93 

Prayer, English Book of Common, 339 
Prehistoric Period, 9 
Presbyterian Church, 321 ; established 

in Scotland, 339 
Presbyters, 179 
Pretenders, 364 n. 
" Prince Charlie," 364 n. 
Prince of Wales, 279 
Princeps, 153 

Printing, invention of, 275, 277 
Prophets, the Hebrew, 43 
Prot'es tant, origin of the term, 316 
Protestant revolt, forerunner of, 285 ; 

in Germany, 316; in England, 322 ff. 

Gl 



Index 



xix 



Protestantism, first orderly statement 
of, 321; in France, 321, 335; spread 
of, 343 ; sects of, 354 

Provencal (pro van sal'), 266 f. 

Provence (pro vans'), 287 

Ptolemies (toremiz), 106, 152 

Punic wars, 129 ff. 

Puritans, 354 

Pyramid Age, the, 14 ff. ; life and art 
in, 19 f. 

Pyramids, 14, 16 

Pyrrhus (pir'us), 125 

Py thag'o ras, 81 

Quaestors (kwes'torz), 122 
Quakers. See Friends 

Raphael, 295 

Raven'na, 186 

Raymond, Count, 239 

Reform, spirit of, 350. See Science 

Religious orders, military, 240 

Renaissance (re na sons'), cities of 

the, 289 ff . ; art of the, 294 ff . 
Republic, Dutch, 333 
Repitblic, The, by Plato, 99 
Restoration in England, 360 f. 
Revolution of 1688, 361 f. 
Rheims (rems), cathedral of, 262, 285 
Richard I, 233 f., 241 
Richelieu (resh lye), 337, 345 
Rollo, Duke of the Normans, 228 
Roman army, 124, 129, 133, 146, 153 f., 
158, 172, 174 f. ; army of the allies, 
127 
Roman art and architecture, 139 ff., 

155, 1 58 f ., 161, 163 ff., 208 
Roman Catholic Church. See Church 
Roman citizenship, extension of, 123, 

172 
Roman civilization, Greek influence 
on, 120, 128, 143, 161 ff. ; wealth in, 
139, 142, 167; collapse of, 174 ff.; 
influence of, 179 
Roman colonization, agricultural, 123, 

127, 159 
Roman commerce, 128, 139 
Roman education, 140 f., 162 
Roman Empire, origin and govern- 
ment of, 143, 154, 159; decline of, 
170 ff..; division of, 177 ff. ; fall of, 
in the West, 183 ; continuity of, 207. 
See Charlemagne, Holy Roman 
Empire, Julius Caesar, Octavian 
Roman law, 122, 160, 186 

Gl 



Roman literature, 167, 174, 200 
Roman provinces, 135, 138, 147, 159, 

162, 176 
Roman religion, 168 
Roman Republic overthrown, 145, 

147 ff., 152 
Roman sea power, 130 f., 149, 161 
Roman society, 139 ff., 167, 171 f., 176 
Roman State, 120 ff., 138,141, 149, 

152, 157, 158, 160 f., 169, 174, 177 
Roman wars, 1236°., 130 ff., 137, 176; 

evil results of, 142 
Romance languages, 265 
Romanesque architecture, 259 
Romanoffs, 634 
Rome, early, 118; captured by the 

Gauls, 124; rebuilt by Augustus, 

154; in the time of Hadrian, 159; 

captured by Alaric, 182 ; capital of 

the Church, 218 
Rom'u lus and Re'mus, 141 
Rouen (ro oh'), 228, 285 
Roumania. See Rumania 
Roundheads, 356 
Royal Academy, 349 
Ru'bi con, 148 
Ru ma'ni a, 1 59 
Runnymede (run'i med), 235 

St. Bartholomew, massacre of, 336 

St. Benedict, Rule of, 198 f. 

St. Bernard, 241 

St. Boniface, 203 

St. Dominic, 245 

St. Francis, 245 f. 

St. Peter's, 294, 311 

Sal'a din takes Jerusalem, 241 f. 

Sal'a mis, 74 

Sam'nite wars, 124 

Saracens, 242 

Sar din'i a, 131 

Sardis, 38 

Sar'gon I, 28 

Sas sa'nids, 175 

Satan, 37 

Satrap, 39 

Saul, 41 

Saxons, in Britain, 183, 202, 279 f. ; 

conquered by Charlemagne, 206 
Scholasticism, 272 
Schools. See Education 
Science, ancient, 109; medieval, 167, 

194, 269 f., 274 ; modern, 347 ff. 
Scipio (sip'i o), 134 
Scotch nation, 281 ; language of, 280 



XX 



General History of Europe 



Scotland, 279 ff. ; union of, with Eng- 
land, 351 ; subdued by Cromwell, 

358 
Scott, Sir Walter, 281 
Sea power, ancient, 109, 130, 149, 161 ; 

medieval, 299, 342 
Seleucids (se lu'sids), 137, 147 
Seleucus (se lu'kus), 106 
Seljuk Turks, 237 
Senate, Roman, I22f., 133, 143, 145ft., 

i5 2 > 175 
Sen'e ca, 157 

Sen nach'e rib, 30, 44 

Sen ti'num, 124 

Separatists, 354 

Serfdom, 172, 248 f., 252; decline of, 
250; long continuation of, in Ger- 
many, 315 

Se ve'rus, Sep tim'i us, 174 

Sev'ille, 194, 302 

Seymour, Jane, 324 

Shakespeare, 338, 352 

Sicily taken by Moslems, 209, 221 

Sinai (si'm), 13 

Sistine Chapel, 294 

Slavery, in Egypt, 19; in Greece, 
64; English and Spanish traffic in, 

338 

Slavic peoples and lands, 35 

Social orders and classes. See Bishops, 
Clergy, Feudalism, Peasants 

Society of Jesus, 329 

Soc'ra tes, 96 f . 

Solomon, 42 ; temple of, 240 

So'lon, 68 

Song of Roland, 266 

Sophists, 80 

Soph'5 cles, 84 f. 

Spain, 128, 131, 134, 175, 183, 193 f., 
299, 302 f. ; first " King of," 306 ; 
loses Dutch provinces, 334; suffers 
from policies of Philip II and sinks 
to second-rate power, 343. See Aus- 
tria, Charles V, Italy 

Spanish Armada, destruction of, 342 

Spanish language, 265 

Spanish Main, 299 

Spanish ships captured by English 
mariners, 338 

Spanish Succession, War of the, 363 

Sphinx, 20 

Spice trade in the Middle Ages, 297 f. 

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 281 

Stoics, 113 

Stone Age, Early, 3 f. ; Late, 5 f. 



Strassburg, 346 

Stuarts, 339, 351 ff., 364 n. 

Sulla (suPa), 146 f. 

Su me'ri ans, 24 

Suzerain, medieval, 211 

Sweden, in the Thirty Years' War, 
343 ff. ; origin of kingdom of, 344 

Swiss lake-dwellers. See Lake-dwellers 

Switzerland, origin of, 319 ff. ; Protes- 
tant revolt in, 320 f. ; independence 
of, 346 

Syria, a Roman province, 138; Mos- 
lems in, 193, 237 ; Latin kingdoms 
in, 240 

Tacitus, 167, 206 

Taxation, in the Roman Empire, 160, 
171, 176; in the Middle Ages, 235, 
256, 282, 284, 285 

Templars, 240 

Terence, 140 

Tet'zel, 311 

Teutons, 146 

Textbooks, 347 

Tha/les, 66 

Thebes (in Egypt), 20 f. 

Thebes (in Greece), 66, 102 

The mis'to cles, 71 ff., 76 

The od'o ric, 184, 197 

Ther mop'y lae, 73 

Theses of Luther, 311 

Thirty Years' War, 343 ff. 

Thucydides (thu sicPi dez), 98 

Ti be'rius, 157 

Tigris River, 24, 92, 104 

Tiryns (tPrinz), 52 

Titian (tish'an), 295 

Toleration, in the Hellenistic Age, 
114; toward Calvinists, 337, 346; 
Act of, 362 

Tolls, 256 

Tombs, Egyptian royal, 14 f. 

Toul, 346 

Tours (tor), 193 f., 204 

Towns, medieval, 248 ff., 319; repre- 
sentation of, 281, 286 

Trade regulated by towns, 253, 257 

Trade unions. See Business 

Tra'jan, 158 f. 

Trasimene, Lake, 132 

Trent, Council of, 328 

Tribunes, 120 

Tripoli, 240 

TrPremes, 64 

Troubadours, 267 

Gl 



Index 



xxi 



Troy, 52, 55, 103 

"Truce of God," 214 

Tudor, House of, 286 

Turks, 237 

"Twelve Articles" of the peasants, 



3*5 
Twelve Tables, 1: 



2f. 



Union of Calmar, 344 

United Netherlands. See Holland 

Universities, medieval, 194, 270 f., 

310 ; German, 271 
Urban II, Pope, 237 f. 
U'trecht, Union of, 333 

Valois, 335 

Vandals, 183, 186 

Van Eyck, the brothers, 296 

V'a'sa, Gustavus, 344 

V'as'co da Ga'm'a, 297 

Vassal, medieval, 211, 213 

Vatican, 294 

Vedas, 36 

Venerable Bede, 198 

Venice, 257, 289 f. 

Verdun, 346 

Vespasian (vespa'zhi an), 157 f. 

Vesuvius, 166 

Vikings, 209 n. 

Vil. See Manor 

Villains, 248 

Virgil, 156, 200 

Virginia, 391, 395 

Vulgate. See Bible 

Wager of battle, 189 

Waldensians (wol den'shanz), 244, 

335 
Waldo, Peter, 244 

Wales, 202 

Wallenstein, 343 ff. 

Walter the Penniless, 238 

Wars, of the Roses, 286 ; of religion, 

33 2ff - 



Wartburg, the, 314 

Weapons, earliest, 3 ; crossbows as, 

285 
Weaving, earliest, 6; Egyptian, 19 
Wedge writing (Sumerian), 24 
West Frankish kingdom and West 

Franks, 207, 209, 228, 266 
West Goths, 182 f. 
Western Empire reestablished by 

Charlemagne, 206 f. 
Westminster, city of, 282 
Westminster Abbey, 201, 228 
-Westphalia, Treaty of, ^345 f. 
. \yheel, earliest use of, 24 ; with cog, 

109 
William the Conqueror, 228 f. 
William III, king of England, 362 f. 
William of Orange, 332 f. See William 

III, king of England 
William the Silent, 332 f. 
' Wit'e na ge m5t, 229 
Wolsey, Thomas, Cardinal, 322 f. 
Wood, early use of, 6 
Worms (vorms), Concordat of, 221 ; 

diet at, 307, 313 ; Edict of, 313 f. 
Writing, 8; Egyptian, 11 f.; Sumerian, 

24; Babylonian, 28; Hebrew, 43; 

Cretan, 50 ; Greek, 57 ; Phoenician, 

57 ; Roman, 120 
. Writing materials, invention of, 13; 

earliest, in Europe, 58 
WycTiffe, John, 284 f. 

Xavier (zav'ier), Francis, 330 
Xenophon (zen'o fon), 92 
Xerxes (zerk'sez), 72, 74 

Yahveh (ya'we), 42 
York, House of, 286 . 

Za'ma, 134 
Zo'di ac, 35 
Z5 ro as'ter, 37 
Zwingli, 320 f. 



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